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Analysis on the Application of Intertextuality and Context Theory in Humorous Discourses
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2018
Pages:
27-31
Received:
19 April 2018
Accepted:
14 May 2018
Published:
29 May 2018
Abstract: Intertextuality, although emerged in the field of literary criticism, attracts scholars’ much attention in discourse analysis in the field of linguistics. It has certain practical significance in analyzing law documents, advertisements, academic papers, news reports and other types of discourses. Humor, as a pervasive phenomenon in human society and an interdisciplinary research subject, has attracted scholars’ much attention from different fields. This paper aims to explore how intertextual resources are appropriately applied in humorous discourses. As intertextuality at the same time brings at least two contexts of each text, context theory will further help to analyze how intertextual relations in certain context lead to humorous effect.
Abstract: Intertextuality, although emerged in the field of literary criticism, attracts scholars’ much attention in discourse analysis in the field of linguistics. It has certain practical significance in analyzing law documents, advertisements, academic papers, news reports and other types of discourses. Humor, as a pervasive phenomenon in human society an...
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Application of Schema Theory in High School English Reading Comprehension
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2018
Pages:
32-36
Received:
8 May 2018
Accepted:
30 May 2018
Published:
14 June 2018
Abstract: Reading comprehension accounts for a lot in English tests. As a key and difficult point in English teaching at high school, the traditional way which focuses on the infusion of vocabulary and grammar may lead to decline of students’ interest in English learning. It is important to find a suitable teaching method for high school students as soon as possible. The schema, which is also known as the background knowledge of students, plays a very essential role in their comprehension of reading materials. Therefore, this paper will concentrate on the exploration of schema theory to find out an English reading teaching method for high school English teachers, which can not only fundamentally improve the students’ English grades, but also effectively transmit useful reading strategies to them and help them form a complete and comprehensive framework of knowledge. Rumelhart proposes that schema is consisted of several variables that represent elements of concepts, and it is a kind of knowledge framework and categorizing system. Based on this definition, this paper attempts to explain the relationship between the schema and the students' reading comprehension process, summarize the concrete role and important influence of the content schema, formal schema and language schema in English reading teaching, and verify the feasibility of the application of schema theory. And a detailed teaching method, which includes the English teaching process before, in and after class will be proposed.
Abstract: Reading comprehension accounts for a lot in English tests. As a key and difficult point in English teaching at high school, the traditional way which focuses on the infusion of vocabulary and grammar may lead to decline of students’ interest in English learning. It is important to find a suitable teaching method for high school students as soon as ...
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Perception-Need Theory of Meaning: Definition and Demonstration
Etienne Mupemba Kabwe Kantanda
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2018
Pages:
37-44
Received:
2 June 2018
Accepted:
19 June 2018
Published:
9 July 2018
Abstract: There are many theories of meaning such as semantic theories (Rusellianism, fregeanism, Possible World Semantics, Davidsonianism, Internalist theories, etc and foundational theories of meaning (Gricean Program, interpretational theories, etc). Philosophers of language such as Russell, Frege, Grice, Davidson, and Chomskyan internalists have constructed theories of meaning by focusing on the following elements as meaning determiners: referent, property, thought, circumstances, truth-condition, intention, language faculty, interpretation, causes, use, representations, and idea. None of these philosophers of language has thought of “speaker’s need” which is the core element on which the above elements are based in order to state what determines meaning. Therefore, the objective of this article is to demonstrate how the perception of the speaker’s need by the listener or hearer determines meaning in a linguistic communication. This demonstration is based on the results of a research conducted in Bonzola Hospital (a hospital in Mbujimayi City in Democratic Republic of Congo. The data in this study were collected through observation and interview. The observation consisted in attending the interaction between doctors and patients so as to listen to their utterances and watch their gestures, facial expressions, actions and whatever can occur during their communication. As far as the analysis of data is concerned, the Conversation Analysis was used so as to analyze the utterances, facial expressions, actions, gestures, and other elements that can occur in communication between doctors and patients. The results show clearly that the conveyance and reception of meaning does not depend mainly on referent, property, thought, circumstances, truth-condition, intention, language faculty, interpretation, causes, use, representations, and idea but the conveyance and reception of meaning depend on the perception of the speaker’s need by the listener or hearer. The interpretation of the results led to the conclusion that meaning is determined by the perception of the speaker’s need by the listener or hearer.
Abstract: There are many theories of meaning such as semantic theories (Rusellianism, fregeanism, Possible World Semantics, Davidsonianism, Internalist theories, etc and foundational theories of meaning (Gricean Program, interpretational theories, etc). Philosophers of language such as Russell, Frege, Grice, Davidson, and Chomskyan internalists have construc...
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An Analysis of English Language Courses for Sino-UK University Engineering Programs
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2018
Pages:
45-53
Received:
9 June 2018
Accepted:
26 June 2018
Published:
21 July 2018
Abstract: This paper takes an example of English language teaching for Sino-UK university students who are the students at International Education School in Suzhou University of Science and Technology. Based on at least two-year English-related courses’ teaching, the team leader and the foreign English teachers express their feelings and difficulties in this paper, the challenges English courses teachers face and how to overcome inherent shyness of Chinese university students, and conclude the practical and effective solutions to the problems respectively for these students in Sino-foreign programs.
Abstract: This paper takes an example of English language teaching for Sino-UK university students who are the students at International Education School in Suzhou University of Science and Technology. Based on at least two-year English-related courses’ teaching, the team leader and the foreign English teachers express their feelings and difficulties in this...
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Face Management, Common Ground and Intention in Nigerian Pidgin Health Talk
Issue:
Volume 4, Issue 2, June 2018
Pages:
54-64
Received:
14 June 2018
Accepted:
30 July 2018
Published:
24 August 2018
Abstract: The cognitive and the interactional paradigm clash engendered the current study as it undertakes a reassessment of the cognitive and the socio-cultural paradigms to meaning explication through a re-examination of face management, common ground, and by extension, intention, in the success of the communicative venture. To accomplish this, it addresses itself to such objectives as: to establish the extent of the dependence of face management and overall success in communication on common ground of participants, it seeks to know whether communicative intention is ipsofacto or post facto (emergent), and whether implicature is derived conventionally or collaboratively rather than from inferences about speaker’s intention. The analysis applied the operational schema of face, intention and common ground postulated in the work to empirical data of the Nigerian pidgin radio discourse ‘The World of Herbs’ of the Edo State Broadcasting Corporation, to evolve valid conclusion on aspects of the inquiry. The findings indicate that common ground (items of information existing in memory or the physical environment) served as an invaluable resource in discourse in aspects of the shared pidgin code, mutual knowledge of topical issue, and access to comprehension through lucidity of expression characteristic of the radio discourse. As regards communicative intention, the analysis indicates that it may be perceived as both a priori and post facto in datum, while intention is recovered via implicature as product of intentionality and conventionality. Intentions are mostly displayed or co-jointly constructed (post facto), especially in cases of normative or moral accountability. Overall, implicature is demonstrated as not derived from inferences about speaker’s intention but through projective and retroactive inferencing. This leads us to the conclusion that the derivation of implicature in interaction is a matter of intentionality and conventionality, while common ground remains an adjustable, co-constructed construct in communication subject to participants’ assessment of the contextual factors involved.
Abstract: The cognitive and the interactional paradigm clash engendered the current study as it undertakes a reassessment of the cognitive and the socio-cultural paradigms to meaning explication through a re-examination of face management, common ground, and by extension, intention, in the success of the communicative venture. To accomplish this, it addresse...
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