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– This study explores the web-mediated genre of TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) talks, speech events whereby experts in their field disseminate knowledge from different domains (e.g. science, technology, design, global issues) addressing an audience of both co-present participants and web-users all over the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the way academics convey epistemic stance (Conrad, Biber 2000) and build up their image as experts on the TED stage. To this purpose, a contrastive analysis was carried out comparing two corpora of spoken discourse, i.e. a corpus of TED talks and a corpus of MICASE university lectures from different disciplines. Although in both genres the speaker is an academic, both the communicative purpose and audience expectations differ substantially in the two contexts under scrutiny. This comparison highlights some distinguishing traits of TED talks and provides a better insight into this genre. Adopting a corpus-based approach, attention is first paid to the most recurrent epistemic lexical verbs (ELVs) and to the use of first and second person pronouns in the two corpora. The qualitative analysis then focuses on similarities and differences in the discourse functions of the four most frequent ELVs (see, show, know, think) and of their clusters when they combine with first and second person pronouns in the two corpora. Previous studies in the field of English for Academic Purposes (Rounds 1987; Fortanet 2004; Walsh 2004; Artiga León 2006; Bamford 2009) are referred to as a starting point to investigate a novel, unexplored pragmatic space (i.e. that of TED) wherein academics accomplish purposes other than merely disseminating knowledge and training students, such as promoting their research and building up their image as experts. Keywords: Languages for Special Purposes, popularization, web-mediated genres, evidentiality, epistemic stance Abstract – I generi mediati dalla rete svolgono un ruolo fondamentale nei processi di ricontestualizzazione e riconcettualizzazione del sapere specialistico. Oltre a riadattare i contenuti per un pubblico di non addetti ai lavori, attraverso i nuovi mezzi di comunicazione gli esperti hanno la possibilità di rimodellare la propria immagine in base ai propri scopi comunicativi. Questo articolo si incentra sui TED talk, interventi a convegno (TED conferences) trasmessi in tutto il mondo attraverso la rete in cui esperti di diverse discipline conferiscono su vari temi (ad es. scienza, tecnologia, architettura, questioni globali). I TED talk condividono molte caratteristiche con una serie di generi ‘satellite’, come i documentari, le presentazioni accademiche, gli articoli scientifici e le lezioni universitarie. Queste ultime rappresentano probabilmente il genere che maggiormente si avvicina ai TED talk. Sia nelle lezioni universitarie sia nei TED talk, infatti, l’esperto si rivolge ad un pubblico di non esperti (o semi-esperti) avvalendosi di varie modalità semiotiche (ad es. parlato, supporti audio, supporti visivi) in quello che si rivela essere un evento comunicativo essenzialmente monologico. Prestando particolare attenzione a un processo di ricontestualizzazione del discorso accademico, questo contributo si propone di analizzare se e fino a che punto il discorso accademico subisce un cambiamento nel momento in cui il parlante si sposta dall’aula universitaria al palco di TED. Questo studio si basa su un’analisi contrastiva: un corpus di TED talk tenuti da accademici viene messo a confronto con un corpus di lezioni universitarie ricavato dal Michigan Corpus of Academic Spoken English (MICASE). Per osservare differenze e analogie fra i due generi ci si avvale di un’analisi sia quantitativa sia qualitativa. Parole chiave: Lingue per Scopi Speciali, Divulgazione, Generi multimediali, Evidentiality, Epistemic stance.

This paper intends to broaden investigations on the strategies and genres adopted by the EU to win consensus and promote its institutional structure. Attention is called to alternative tools supplementing the (ever-growing) array of discursive devices and structures employed in EU brochures of comparable nature. In particular, focus will be placed on the “humanization” of the European Union, achieved by means of the incorporation of EU employees’ profiles in the Union’ informative material. The attribution of precise names, faces, roles and objectives to activities carried out at the European Union will be examined and the social impact of such attribution discussed within the framework of critical discourse analysis.

This paper is a contribution of our Research Group (University of Naples Federico II) to the national MIUR project on "Intercultural Discourse in Domain-specific English" (National coordinator: prof. Maurizio Gotti, University of Bergamo). The study reflects two different perspectives and approaches in the analysis of the language of the European Union, both converging on the relation between the source of the legal message and the diversified addressees constituting the EU Community.

ispartof: Traduire la Criminalité: la représentation discursive du crime organisé pages:76-104 ispartof: pages:76-104 status: published

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While public opinion is still trying to agree on what ‘belonging to Europe’ exactly means, the European Union’s horizons do not appear to have stabilized. EU enlargement is often described as an ‘unprecedented adventure’ in terms of its scale and socio-political consequences, but the question of where EU’s borders end is still left unanswered. The linguistic and semiotic analysis of EU discursive practices reveals that no geographical bound has been posed to the creation of a multinational and polyethnic EU: “The EU is based more on values and political will than on rivers and mountains. The European Union is a political project, and its borders are political” (The European Commission, 2005. 20 Myths and Facts about Enlargement). The unwillingness to formulate precise geographical limits clearly responds to the political need to keep institutional doors open to future aspiring candidates. Enlargement is thus presented in EU texts as an open-ended process of social and political ‘integration’, which gradually replaces the previously widespread concept of European ‘unification’. The mapping of EU identity unfolds as an in fieri project whose futurity is symbolised in EU communication policy by new images and mottos. Taking into account the framework set by studies in Discourse Analysis and Social Semiotics, this paper investigates the linguistic and rhetorical strategies used by the European Union that are conducive to the formation of European identity and citizenship. To this purpose, an analysis of visual and textual material issued by the Community institutions is introduced to uncover the discursive practices used to widen, shape and reformulate the principles of a common European heritage. This emerging and multifarious process of integration is of paramount interest to this study as it gives rise to visual and verbal symbols aimed at promoting a new awareness of what ‘being European’ is all about.