Table Of ContentYearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics
Karin Aijmer
Diana Lewis Editors
Contrastive Analysis
of Discourse-
pragmatic Aspects of
Linguistic Genres
Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics
Series Editor
Jesús Romero-Trillo, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Reviews Editor
Dawn Knight, Cardiff University, Cardiff, UK
Advisory Editorial Board
Karin Aijmer, University of Gothenburg, Sweden
Belén Díez-Bedmar, Universidad de Jaén, Spain
Ronald Geluykens, University of Oldenburg, Germany
Anna Gladkova, University of Sussex and University of Brighton, UK
Stefan Gries, University of California, Santa Barbara, USA
Leo Francis Hoye, University of Hong Kong, China
Jingyang Jiang, Zhejiang University, China
Anne O’Keeffe, Mary Immaculate College, Limerick, Ireland
Silvia Riesco-Bernier, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Anne-Marie Simon-Vandenbergen, University of Ghent, Belgium
Esther Vázquez y del Árbol, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Spain
Anne Wichmann, University of Central Lancashire, UK
More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/11559
Karin Aijmer • Diana Lewis
Editors
Contrastive Analysis of
Discourse-pragmatic Aspects
of Linguistic Genres
Editors
Karin Aijmer Diana Lewis
University of Gothenburg Department of English and
Gothenburg, Sweden Lerma Research Centre
Aix Marseille University
Aix-en-Provence, France
ISSN 2213-6819 ISSN 2213-6827 (electronic)
Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics
ISBN 978-3-319-54554-7 ISBN 978-3-319-54556-1 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54556-1
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017936967
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017
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Contents
Introduction ..................................................................................................... 1
Karin Aijmer and Diana Lewis
Part I Contrastive Analysis with Parallel Corpora
The Semantic Field of Obligation in an English-Swedish
Contrastive Perspective .................................................................................. 13
Karin Aijmer
English so and Dutch dus in a Parallel Corpus:
An Investigation into Their Mutual Translatability .................................... 33
Lieven Buysse
What English Translation Equivalents Can Reveal
about the Czech “Modal” Particle prý: A Cross-Register Study ................ 63
Michaela Martinková and Markéta Janebová
Modal Adverbs of Certainty in EU Legal Discourse:
A Parallel Corpus Approach .......................................................................... 91
Magdalena Szczyrbak
Part II Contrastive Analysis with Comparable Corpora
Adverbial Clauses in English and Norwegian Fiction and News ............... 119
Hilde Hasselgård
Coherence Relations and Information Structure in English
and French Political Speeches ........................................................................ 141
Diana Lewis
v
vi Contents
Part III Contrastive Analysis Across Genres of English
Callbacks in Stand-Up Comedy: Constructing Cohesion
at the Macro Level Within a Specific Genre ................................................. 165
Catherine Chauvin
Bush and Obama’s Addresses to the Arab World:
Recontextualizing Stance in Political Discourse ........................................... 187
Laura Hidalgo-Downing and Yasra Hanawi
The Role of Metadiscourse in Genre Analysis: Engagement Markers
in Undergraduate Textbooks and Research Articles ................................... 211
Tereza Guziurová
Contributors
Karin Aijmer University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
Lieven Buysse Faculty of Arts, KU Leuven, Brussels, Belgium
Catherine Chauvin Department of English, University of Lorraine, Nancy, France
Yasra Hanawi Department of English, Facultad de Filosofía, Letras Universidad
Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Hilde Hasselgård Department of Literature, Area Studies and European Languages,
University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
Laura Hidalgo-Downing Department of English, Facultad de Filosofía, Letras
Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, Madrid, Spain
Markéta Janebová Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of Arts,
Palacký University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Diana Lewis Department of English and Lerma Research Centre, Aix Marseille
University, Aix-en-Provence, France
Tereza Guziurová Faculty of Arts, Centre for the Research of Professional
Language, University of Ostrava, Ostrava, Czech Republic
Michaela Martinková Department of English and American Studies, Faculty of
Arts, Palacky University, Olomouc, Czech Republic
Magdalena Szczyrbak Institute of English Studies, Jagiellonian University,
Kraków, Poland
vii
Introduction
Karin Aijmer and Diana Lewis
Abstract The aim of this issue of the Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and
Pragmatics is to explore the comparability of discourse-pragmatic characteristics of
genres across European languages, using parallel corpora (aligned translated texts)
and/or comparable corpora (genre-matched original texts). The articles have their
origin in a seminar at the 12th ESSE conference in Kosiče, Slovakia 29 August–2
September 2014 convened by the editors.
Keywords Contrastive linguistics • Parallel corpora • Comparable corpora • Genre
The aim of this issue of the Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics is to
explore the comparability of discourse-pragmatic characteristics of genres across
European languages, using parallel corpora (aligned translated texts) and/or compa-
rable corpora (genre-matched original texts). The articles have their origin in a
seminar at the 12th ESSE conference in Kosiče, Slovakia 29 August–2 September
2014 convened by the editors.
1 The ‘New’ Contrastive Analysis
Renewed interest in contrastive linguistics over the past couple of decades, together
with increasing availability of specialised digital corpora, have resulted in a new,
usage-based approach to language comparison. The domain of contrastive linguis-
tics centres on the comparison, in synchrony, of two languages. In a break with the
‘applied’ approach to contrastive linguistics of the 1960s and 1970s, which tended
K. Aijmer (*)
University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden
e-mail: [email protected]
D. Lewis
Department of English and Lerma Research Centre, Aix Marseille University,
Aix-en-Provence, France
e-mail: [email protected]
© Springer International Publishing AG 2017 1
K. Aijmer, D. Lewis (eds.), Contrastive Analysis of Discourse-pragmatic
Aspects of Linguistic Genres, Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics,
DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-54556-1_1
2 K. Aijmer and D. Lewis
to focus on particular differences in the structural features of two languages with a
view to predicting L2 learner difficulties, recent work has been more descriptive and
theoretical, and it has taken language usage into account, to compare frequencies
and distributions as well as structures. A number of recent monographs (e.g.
Johansson 2007, König and Gast 2009), collections (e.g. Gómez -González et al.
2008, Taboada et al. 2013) and journal issues (v. special issues of Languages in
Contrast) bear witness to the breadth and vigour of this new approach.
The ‘new’ contrastive linguistics has found its place among linguistic typology,
historical linguistics, cross-cultural communication and intralanguage variation,
overlapping somewhat with each of these other domains of enquiry (v. König 2011).
The current collection of papers can be seen as falling at the intersection of contras-
tive analysis and intralanguage variation.
Contrastive linguistics is “concerned with pairs of languages which are ‘socio-
culturally linked’” (Gast 2012: 1). The two languages analysed are spoken by bilin-
guals fluent in both, are mutually translated, and have some comparable socio-cultural
institutions and practices that form a backdrop for comparison. This is particularly
relevant for contrastive genre analysis, since ‘equivalent’ socio-cultural practices
across the two speech communities will allow a genre in one speech community to
be paired with a genre in the other, to provide the tertium comparationis for the
comparison.
2 The Notion of Genre
Language needs to be studied in relation to aspects of the communication situation
and the wider cultural context. These aspects include the textual genre. Genre is
however a problematic concept. There is, for example, no agreement about terminol-
ogy but scholars use different terms such as genre, activity type (cf. Levinson 1979),
register, text type reflecting different perspectives and approaches. The definition of
genre usually includes sociolinguistic and contextual parameters. According to
Bhatia, ‘analysing genre means investigating instances of conventionalised or insti-
tutionalised textual artefacts in the context of specific institutional and disciplinary
practices, procedures and cultures in order to understand how members of specific
discourse communities construct, interpret and use these genres to achieve their com-
munity goals and why they write them the way they do’ (Bhatia 2002: 6). Text type,
on the other hand, is generally used to refer to a group of related texts in a corpus.
The term ‘register’ is used above all in systemic functional linguistics as a ‘contex-
tual category correlating groupings of linguistic features with recurrent situational
features’ (Gregory and Carroll 1978: 4, quoted from Swales 1990: 40).
Genres often show distinctive patterns of frequency and distribution of linguistic
features in relation to other genres or to the wider language. The articles deal with
patterns across English and (an)other language(s), in areas such as modality,
pragmatic markers, speech acts, coherence relations and information structure.
Using a genre-based perspective the authors draw attention to how different dis-
Description:This volume will give readers insight into how genres are characterised by the patterns of frequency and distribution of linguistic features across a number of European languages. The material presented in this book will also stimulate further corpus-based contrastive research including more languag
