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Editorial

Ibérica 20 contains six research articles, one research note and nine reviews.
It opens with two genre-based works on research articles (RAs) across
disciplines. In the first paper, Matthew Peacock focuses on linking adverbials
across four science and four non-science disciplines. By making use of the
WordSmith Tool v.4 (Scott, 2004), he studies linking adverbials – such as
“however” or “otherwise” – in terms of frequency, function and disciplinary
variation. With Biber et al.’s (1999) semantic categories for linking adverbials
as a guiding light, Peacock analyses 320 published RAs totalling a 1,961,042
word corpus. Conclusions reveal important disciplinary variations – such as
a higher use of linking adverbials by non-science disciplines – and stress the
prominent role of linking adverbials as signalling and cohesive devices for
the construction and strengthening of claims by researching authors. In the
second paper, Enrique Lafuente Millán deals with authorial identity and the
writer’s presence in RAs. By combining data from 96 RAs published in four
different disciplines and insights from 14 specialist informants, he examines
the use of exclusive first person markers as an interpersonal strategy that
influences authoritative stance. Lafuente’s concern lies primarily with the
discursive functions of exclusive “we” so that seven pragmatic functions are
identified, their relative occurrence estimated and their purpose discussed in
view of potential disciplinary variations. Particularly innovative is the array
of comments by the specialist informants from each discipline gathered
from interviews and groups meetings that enhances this author’s main
findings.

The following two papers both examine the metaphorical use of language
within the financial context. Firstly, Nadezda Silaski and Tatjana -Durović
acknowledge and address animal metaphors in the conceptualisation of
INFLATION as an ANIMAL in English economic discourse. More
specifically, they focus on the INFLATION IS A FEROCIOUS ANIMAL
metaphor to claim and map the negative evaluations contained in
INFLATION as an entity. In so doing, Silaski and -Durović draw a parallel
between INFLATION and the ways animals move, look, eat/are fed, attack
and are controlled in an effort to illustrate the wealth of linguistic realisations
pertaining to the FEROCIOUS ANIMAL metaphor. Secondly, Maria
Enriqueta Cortés de los Ríos calls our attention to today’s world economic

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crisis by analysing seven covers recently published in The Economist from a
cognitive-axiological perspective. In particular she discusses the metaphors,
metonymies, image schemas, colour and cultural aspects found in the target
press covers, and examines how these devices are used to capture meaning
and communicate the economic crisis. In her analysis, Cortés contends that
the magnitude of today’s world economic crisis is conveyed through
metaphorical expressions related to extreme natural phenomena (i.e. nature,
weather and apocalyptic metaphors), that metaphors and metonymies are
based on image schemas that strengthen the negative side of the economic
crisis, and that colours and culture-related features are used as persuasive
strategies to move and influence readers.

In a fifth paper, Camino Rea Rizzo and Aquilino Sánchez Pérez explore the
so-called “lexical constellation model” and its contribution to the formation
of new terms in telecommunication English. They begin by presenting and
illustrating the lexical constellation model with particular attention to the
potential and behaviour of semantic features to shape old and new meaning
and senses within lexical units (or “words”). Based on technical dictionaries
and other reference works as well as a five-million word corpus of
telecommunication English compiled by the first author for her Ph.D. thesis
(Rea, 2008), Rea and Sánchez apply the lexical constellation model to three
familiar words in telecommunication English such as “bus”, “hub” and
“chip” with the aim of discovering “the relationships and connections
between the new technical meaning generated and the “old meaning or
meanings” in which the new sense is rooted or from with it derives” (page
115).

Luis Javier Santos López closes this section with a research article on
parliamentary discourse. Santos studies a corpus of transcriptions gathered
from 187 plenary sessions of the Spanish Parliament held between 2000 and
2008 and focuses on Question Time as a particular subgenre within political
discourse. Santos first takes into account the Gricean maxims of quantity,
quality, relevance and manner to explain the link between the discourse
uttered in Parliament when questioning and its underlying cooperative
principle. Then, he goes on to explore the communicative purpose and
channel, the relationship between speakers and hearers as well as the topics
of concern and suggest a classification of subgenres for the umbrella genre
identified as parliamentary discourse.

The research note by Philippa Mungra reports the process and outcome of

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implementing a Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
methodology in a medicine course with the purpose of teaching medicine
students to write scientific abstracts in English. Mungra’s description of the
course layout and methodology developed, team-work undertaken, testing
method employed and sample exercises outlined will be very interesting to
those lecturers faced with the task of designing CLIL courses as an
alternative to LSP courses in pursuance of the requirements laid down by the
Bologna Declaration and the European Space for Higher Education.

As far as the section of reviews is concerned, this reveals the ample
opportunity of LSP for research and international publications. Bárbara
Eizaga Rebollar provides a detailed account of metadiscourse in academic
speech from the point of view of Relevance Theory; Anabel Borja examines
the discourse types that criminal law entails for translation purposes in
Spanish and Italian; Michael White assesses a volume that applies cognitive
linguistics to second language teaching and learning; Miguel F. Ruiz-Garrido
explores a collection of chapters from the 2005 AILA Conference focused
on conversation analysis as applied to spoken specialised discourse; Elena
López Torres reviews the Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL)
methodology and its implementation from primary to tertiary educational
levels; Chelo Vargas acknowledges a volume published in honour of the
reknowned Danish lexicographer Henning Bergenholtz with fourteen
relevant contributions from highly regarded scholars in the field of
lexicography; Marta Aguilar writes about a manual addressed to non-native
speakers of English for the purpose of writing science research texts that
comply with the conventions of today’s scientific community; Juan Carlos
Palmer-Silveira addresses the construct of interculturality in business
settings and the simulation and gaming methodology as a vehicle to achieve
the communicative competence that helps readers to communicate
efficiently in an intercultural business context; and, finally, Honesto Herrera
Soler encourages readers to resort to statistics and use the SPSS software for
making the most of our research.

Ibérica is most indebted to the members of the Editorial Committee who
have assessed proposed manuscripts on a permanent basis for the past years.
On behalf of the whole Editorial Committee, I would like to appreciate the
collaborative effort and dedication shown by Ivone C. Cunha (ISCAP, Porto,
Portugal) and Hanna Skorczynska (Universidad Politécnica de Valencia).
Moreover, I would personally like to thank them both for their personal
support and encouragement not only on my editorial duties but also on my

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particular concerns. The journal wishes Ivone and Hanna well in their
current and future academic endeavours and welcomes two new members to
the Editorial Committee: Honesto Herrera (Universidad Complutense de
Madrid) and Chelo Vargas (Universidad de Alicante).

Finally, I would like to acknowledge those invited external reviewers who
have assessed submitted manuscripts during this past semester. These have
been: Adriana Bolivar (Universidad Central de Venezuela), Honesto Herrera
(Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Adelina Jover (Universidad de
Alicante), Rosa Lorés (Universidad de Zaragoza), Pilar Mur (Universidad de
Zaragoza), Françoise Salager-Meyer (Universidad de Los Andes, Mérida,
Venezuela) and Chelo Vargas (Universidad de Alicante). My appreciation for
their detailed assessments and the expertise and time invested in the journal.

Ana Bocanegra Valle
Universidad de Cádiz (Spain)

Editor of Ibérica

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