Volume 2, Issue 1

The concept of subjectification plays a key role in Foucault’s theory of governmentality and has been an important tool for the analysis of policy discourses, for example, in the form of Bacchi’s (2009. Analysing Policy: What’s the Problem Represented to Be? Frenchs Forest, N.S.W.: Pearson Australia) ‘What’s the problem represented to be?’ methodology. In this article, I demonstrate how corpus analysis can complement Bacchi’s methodology to offer a systematic and sophisticated account of subjectification processes in policy discourse, using Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) policy as a case in point. I combine Bacchi’s methodology with van Leeuwen’s (2008. Discourse and Practice: New Tools for Critical Discourse Analysis . Oxford Studies in Sociolinguistics . Oxford: Oxford University Press) linguistic framework for the analysis of discourse as social praxis, and argue that both Bacchi and van Leeuwen’s methodologies contain an important limitation, which is the assumption that agency is necessarily human. Drawing on anthropological theories of agency, I propose a broader concept of subjectification which includes the process whereby human agency is represented as things. From this perspective, another reading of the results emerges, in which the main subjects are medicines, and the aim of the policy is to save medicines.

This study investigates how Mandarin Chinese speakers use double and redundant negations to adjust information entropy and convey the speaker’s mood. Integrating Gricean implicature, signaling game theory, and information entropy, we quantified uncertainty in negation sentences by calculating self-information of negation markers and overall entropy for negations versus affirmatives. Analyzing sentences from the BCC Corpus of Mandarin Chinese newspapers, we extracted double and redundant negation patterns, calculated their frequencies, and compared entropy values in payoff matrices against affirmatives. Contextual analysis of surrounding discourse interpreted pragmatic functions. Our findings reveal that universal double negations reduce sentence entropy, intensifying assertiveness. Modal forms further decrease entropy, amplifying necessity, while conditional patterns strengthen the asserted conditions. Euphemistic double negations increase entropy, weaken assertiveness, and align with Levinson’s Manner Principle. This increase in entropy quantifies pragmatic markedness, allowing tentative critiques. Redundant negations significantly reduce entropy, strengthening negative attitudes. We elucidate how interlocutors navigate cooperative discourse by quantifying uncertainty via entropy measures, making contextually-optimal linguistic choices like assertion, indirectness, and emphasis. These findings impact signaling game theory and pragmatic markedness, with applications in natural language processing, cross-cultural communication, and computational models. Future research could explore other languages and cognitive and social factors in negation use.

This article delves into the trajectory of corpus translation studies (CTS) over the past two decades, summarizing key areas of existing research and identifying potential gaps and challenges within the field. The review encompasses various research areas, including translation universals, translator style, translation norms, and translation pedagogy. It acknowledges the valuable contributions made in these areas while also highlighting potential areas for improvement, such as the need to incorporate functional aspects in translator style research and align translation training programs with professional requirements. The review introduces (De Sutter, Gert, and Marie-Aude Lefer. 2020. “On the Need for a New Research Agenda for Corpus-Based Translation Studies: A Multi-Methodological, Multifactorial and Interdisciplinary Approach.” Perspectives 28 (1): 1–23) new research agenda for CTS, which advocates for multifactorial designs, methodological pluralism, and interdisciplinarity. This agenda facilitates two analysis modes: one utilizing corpus methods to examine translation products, and the other employing diverse methods to investigate products, processes, participants, and contexts in corpus-assisted translation practices. It is argued that these two analysis modes offer valuable guidance for future corpus-assisted translation studies.

This study examines the multimodal pragmatic abilities of older adults experiencing typical aging in contrast to those with Alzheimer’s disease, via the statistical and comparative analysis of harmful illocutionary forces expressed in their discourse. The results indicated that individuals with Alzheimer’s disease showed a noticeable lack of emotional engagement, which hindered the felicity of illocutionary forces. Furthermore, these patients struggled to use appropriate prosodic indicators, alongside a diminished integration of conventional gestures. Highlighting the significance of multimodal illocutionary force indicators in speech acts, this study contributes to a more intricate comprehension of interpersonal communication.

This study examined 210 teleconsultations to analyze doctors’ extended answers and communication strategies using corpus software. The results revealed seven categories of extended answers, with explanations for diseases and treatments being the most frequent at 39 %. Proposals for medical treatment had a proportion at 29 %. The remaining categories had lower rates ranging from 3 % to 9 %. The corpus derived four types of communication strategies: baldly on-record strategies (BORSs), positive politeness strategies (PPSs), negative politeness strategies (NPSs), and off-record strategies (ORSs), with NPSs being the most commonly used at 84 %. Except ORSs, these strategies encompassed multiple classes, with NPSs having as much as seven categories, in which offering justifications for definitive minimal responses was the most prevalent at 33 %. Making fuzzy proposals had a share of 32 %. Each of the remaining categories made up a far low rate. But when it comes to the specific category of extended answers, the most commonly used strategy in it is not always the one from NPSs. The study underscores the significance of clear explanations and justifications in teleconsultations. Implications for training programs in teleconsultation settings are discussed, with potential areas for further research suggested to enhance teleconsultation practices.

Abduction has recently become a security threat bedevilling Nigeria. This corpus-assisted critical discourse study examines news reports published by selected English-medium Nigerian newspapers from 2020 to 2022 on abduction, to understand how abduction is constructed within the Nigerian socio-political context. Taking a corpus-based approach to critical discourse analysis, I identify a series of discourses through which abduction and related issues are represented using keywords as pointers. Data revealed that the news reports are characterised by five constructions on abduction in Nigeria: construction of abduction perpetrators; construction of the state; construction of abduction setting/context; construction of abduction act as a means to an end; and construction of abduction victims. Abductors tend to be negatively evaluated in all the papers, portrayed as gunmen, bandits, ransom demanders and terrorists. Findings further revealed that the newspapers deployed different discourse strategies, especially referential/nomination and predication to negatively evaluate abductors. The range of these focuses indicates that the newspapers converge to negatively portray abduction and the perpetrators of same, thus negatively accentuating the general perception of abductors and abduction.

This paper conducts an empirical study using digital humanities to explore the indirect translation of Chinese contemporary literature, focusing on a Portuguese version of Jin Yong’s A Hero Born: The Legend of the Condor Heroes derived from its English translation. Employing BERTopic modeling, it quantifies thematic changes related to heroism in the translation process from Chinese through English to Portuguese. This study examines how Chinese concepts of heroism are adapted or rewritten in translation, exploring the notion of intermediate translations as “secondhand” and “distorted” from digital humanities perspective. By applying the zero-shot BERTopic model, the research allows for a quantitative comparative analysis of topic distribution across the original, intermediate, and final translation texts. The findings aim to enrich translation studies by demonstrating how Chinese cultural concepts are transformed and circulated through indirect translation, providing a data-driven insight into the global dissemination and reception of Wuxia literature.

Virginia Woolf, one of the most renowned modernist British writers, left an enduring imprint on the literary landscape with her distinct and influential writing style. Her literary journey is characterized by an evolution, transitioning from conformity with Victorian and Edwardian literary conventions to pioneering a groundbreaking and experimental approach, notably employing the innovative technique of stream of consciousness. This investigation seeks to identify and quantify this transformation. To achieve this goal, I curated two distinct corpora representing Woolf’s early and later works and meticulously processed them using the multi-dimensional analysis tagger. Subsequently, a battery of independent samples was conducted to compare six distinct dimensions and then 67 linguistic features between the two corpora. This study uncovers a discernible evolution in Woolf’s writing style, with her later works displaying a lessened degree of persuasiveness, abstraction, and online communicativeness, and an enhanced degree of personal involvement and subjectivity. Our findings not only enrich our comprehension of Woolf’s literary development and accomplishments but also shed light on the broader context of the modernist movement and its profound influence on the modernist literary style.