Search

Within sustainability controversies, actors face trade-offs where they prioritize either economic, social or environmental concerns. However, there is little research engaging with how actors mobilize discourses in sustainability controversies. This research seeks to extend this body of literature by adopting a discursive lens in which we examine how different actors mobilize different discourses to argue for their respective conceptions of sustainable development and their trade-offs. By adopting a longitudinal instrumental single-case study design, this research examines the ongoing controversy in Quebec over the development of new mining projects for the extraction of transition minerals. This study offers several contributions to the sustainability trade-offs literature. First, it sheds light on the dynamic nature of discursive strategies within sustainability controversies. Second, the paper broadens understanding of the use of moralization discursive strategies in sustainability trade-offs. Third, it identifies the new neutralization strategy in sustainability controversies. The paper also suggests several practical implications for the actors involved in sustainability controversies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

According to Aristotle, general truths are inclusive, unscientific claims regarding human nature based on a society's knowledge and values. Claims of this kind, specifically those that have become sayings and clichés, are perceived as irrefutable axioms and thus enjoy considerable rhetorical force. The paper focuses on what is termed constructed general truths – new inclusive, unscientific claims about human nature presented as if they have already been accepted. It analyzes the discursive strategies by which they are constructed in politicians' Facebook posts in two Israeli election campaigns held in 2019, and discusses their rhetorical function. It is argued that the three prime ministerial candidates in Israel in 2019 (Benjamin Netanyahu, Benny Gantz and Yair Lapid) constructed new general truths by means of semantic, syntactical, grammatical and intertextual strategies, and that these seemingly general truths fulfilled rhetorical-pragmatic functions within their co-texts and contexts. Two main functions are discussed: First, to reinforce the candidates' own ethos as successful and moral leaders who behave in accordance with the morals and logic conveyed by the constructed general truths and seemingly reflect a consensus among the general public; second, to weaken the ethos of their rival/s who seemingly do/es not follow the same general truths. • New and original claims may be constructed as general truths. • General truths are constructed by means of diverse discursive strategies. • Constructed general truths are often found in politicians' Facebook posts. • Constructed general truths fulfill diverse pragmatic functions in their co-texts. • Constructed general truths fulfill a rhetorical key role in election campaigning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs) are known to have a wide range of negative impacts upon nearby residents and communities. Therefore, the siting of such operations in economically underdeveloped rural communities is an important environmental justice issue. This study explores the environmental conflict that surrounded a proposed CAFO in Bayfield County, Wisconsin. In this struggle, an outside corporation attempted to site a new CAFO in a community that was highly divided on the issue. We draw complementary insights from the environmental justice, stakeholder theory, and rural studies literatures to explain how the opponents of the CAFO were ultimately able to successfully resist the unwanted land use. This theoretical framework treats the formation of environmental inequalities as a process of conflict among diverse parties in which the potentially impacted communities may strongly influence the eventual outcome. Through interviews with key stakeholders and analysis of local and state media sources, we examine the primary points of contention within the local community along with the relative claims making and discursive strategies employed by each side. The findings of this study imply that how rural communities construct their identity and define potential environmental hazards are central to deciding environmental conflicts. • We analyze the discourses surrounding the conflict over a proposed CAFO in rural Wisconsin. • Circumstances unique to rural spaces and people influence their discursive strategies. • Rural communities may have more agency than previously recognized to fend off unwanted land uses. • Struggles associated with rural environmental injustice can center on negotiations over meaning and understanding. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This article discusses the discursive strategies used in negotiating the social transformation agenda in Nigeria. Data for the study comprise advocacy texts that touch on anti-corruption crusade, entrenchment of democratic values and security of lives and properties. The data were drawn from speeches and jingles circulated by institutional agencies on television and radio stations and covered the period July 2013 to July 2018. The five-year span was informed by the wide gamut of negative realities in the nation at the time frame which led to increased mediatisation of social transformation messages in the nation. Fairclough's (2015) dialectical relational approach constitutes the theoretical anchor for the study. Data analysis reveals that the discourse participants deploy framing, legitimation, rhetorical questions, linguistic nativism, metaphorisation of social transformation acts and accentuation of the repercussions of negative actions. The paper concludes that even though the discourse of social transformation in Nigeria is hinged on the desire to impact the society, it also reflects the power disequilibrium in the society which privileges the government and reflects in the construction of Nigeriás problems and its solutions as citizen-oriented. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract This contribution examines the ways in which newspapers open or close mediated debate on the Belgian internment issue, and whether this can be connected to different journalistic practices. Although human rights guarantees are often articulated as a matter of near-universal consensus, Belgium has been convicted 23 times by the European Court for Human Rights for its treatment of mentally disabled criminal offenders. Considering news media's central role in shaping debate on human rights issues, we study internment news in two Dutch-language newspapers between 2013 and 2015 using critical discourse analysis. Our research shows that studying media as a site of struggle enables a deeper understanding of how debate is opened or closed, and explores the possibilities of studying discursive strategies that shape the mediated debate together with practices that reinforce journalistic credibility. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is widely recognized that semantic bleaching is a prominent concomitant of grammaticalization. The reductive process may eliminate the core semantic element and lead to an emergence of a marker of seemingly incongruous notions. This paper addresses one such type of semantic reduction in Korean, the case of the multi-functional connective - cani . Historically, - cani originated from a hortative sentential ending - ca and a connective - ni through morpho-syntactic coalescence eliminating intervening forms. The resultant form - cani was initially used to signal hortative and causal, but later to mark hypotheticality, contingency and incidentality. The development of the hortative-based connective cani- occurred through two channels: (i) the direct quotation channel and (ii) the complementizer channel. One prominent aspect of the development is semantic change, i.e., a progressive reduction of volitionality. At the outset, its semantics had strong volitive element, i.e., imposition of the speaker's volition on the addressee and the speaker together, the defining characteristic of hortative. In its later development into a marker of hypotheticality, the hortative meaning is significantly bleached and the use becomes highly rhetorical. The speaker is strategically invoking a hypothetical hortative pseudo-quotation in order to make his/her statement more dynamic or vivid. As the form acquires the rhetorical and discursive functions, its volitional semantics becomes further bleached, and it is entirely lost when the form reaches the contingency- and incidentality-marking stages. This paper shows how the speaker's discursive strategy has given rise to the emergence of diverse grammatical functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article investigates how Cosa Nostra family discourse is characterized by a series of discursive strategies that give shape to specific ideological structures. By analysing a TV interview to the son of Bernardo Provenzano, boss of Cosa Nostra, it is possible to understand how the criminal values and practices are maintained and reproduced within the father–son relationship. Specifically, we show how the son justifies, legitimises or denies the criminal actions of his father. The ideology of Cosa Nostra seems to be based on the inter-generational cultural continuity of its members, on the family as main locus of adherence, reductionism of its mediatic image, amoralism as father–son relational constant and verticalism of the organisation as key framing device. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Oversupply of information, irrelevance, and repetition in political and administrative text and talk have received considerable scholarly attention, but the tendency to date has been to analyse these phenomena separately. In this article, I argue that it would be fruitful to explore these aspects in combination, as constitutive dimensions of calculated overcommunicative behaviour in public administration. Based on a multidisciplinary review of literature on cognitive manipulation, prolixity, (ir)relevance, discourse repetition, and administrative behaviour, I propose an original ‘overcommunication framework’ for explicating certain discursive macro-strategies of positive self-presentation used by public officeholders. In particular, I discuss how governments may use calculated overcommunication to avoid or deflect blame, to signal democratic openness, and to perform swiftness. By problematising the notion of ‘overcommunication’ and introducing it into discourse studies, I seek to open up new avenues of understanding and investigating political and organisational communication. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Inaugural speech as the first formal presentation of a new president plays highly persuasive and ideological functions in the political scene of a country. This study adopted a critical discourse analysis (CDA) approach to investigate the typical discursive characteristics underlying the inaugural address. To this end, second term and first term inaugural speeches were analyzed to explore the potential ideologies signaled by the discursive strategies and rhetorical devices which these presidents employed to express their political views. The results revealed that the speakers possessed a rich repertoire of discursive mechanisms such as the positive self and negative other-presentation strategies for influencing the addressees. The findings also attested the intricate relationships existing between language, power and ideology. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The present study investigates EFL students’ perceptions of power differentials and their negotiation strategies when communicating with native English-speaking students via emails. The study involved 28 Taiwanese and American undergraduates who participated in a semester-long cross-national email writing activity. Findings show that students in both locales recognized power differentials. Focusing on the Taiwanese students, the study identifies their textual identities and writing styles used to negotiate power differentials in three types of interactions – balance, endurance, and resistance. The findings offer important implications for teaching English writing in cross-national digital spaces. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

On 5 October 2017, The New York Times published an article in which Harvey Weinstein was accused of sexual harassment by five women. The scandal grew to enormous proportions as more allegations against him followed. This led to the #MeToo and TIME'S UP movements, initiatives to fight sexual harassment in the workplace. Given that media discourse can have an impact on the knowledge, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviours of the public regarding these phenomena (van Dijk 1989), this study adopts a Critical Discourse Studies (CDS) perspective and explores how power and gender inequality are sustained, (re)shaped and/or challenged by focusing on the reporting of the Harvey Weinstein case which - to the author's best knowledge - has not been analysed before in the field of linguistics. It draws from the systemic functional linguistics and the discourse-historical approach and it examines the way the perpetrator, the accusers and the phenomenon of sexual harassment were discursively constructed in five key articles published in the New York Times. The findings differ in a major way from existing research on sexual violence against women in that 1) the perpetrator, Weinstein, was depicted with clear ascription of agency, 2) women victims' voices and feelings were foregrounded, 3) the link between sexual harassment and the social context in which it occurs was discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Community renewable energy promises to play an important role in reducing the generation and consumption of high carbon sources of power, as well as in demonstrating the viability of novel business models within a transformed energy system built on principles of locality and democracy. The paper argues, however, that community renewable energy, in England at least, remains marginal, undermined by changing government policies and underplayed institutional factors connected with technology and organisational legitimacy. The paper reports on interviews with 29 actors connected with community renewable energy in England. The analysis identifies themes implicating various types of legitimacy with the partial and uneven institutionalisation of community renewable energy. These are bound up with continuing and new institutional rules and the deployment of strategies for (de)legitimising community renewable energy, including associated technologies and organisational forms, adversely impacting on the potential contribution of community renewable energy to energy system transformation. • Novel focus on legitimacy-building in institutionalising community renewable energy. • Identifies legitimacy gaps faced by community renewable energy in England. • Uniquely analyses organisational and technology legitimacy and discursive practices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]