Keynote Speakers

Keynote speakers

Anita Naciscione

Latvian Academy of Culture, Latvia

MULTIMODALITY AND FIGURATIVE THOUGHT:

A Cross-language and Cross-cultural approach

 

ABSTRACT

My aim is to have a closer look at the functioning of metaphor and other stylistic patterns in conceptualisation of economic and political austerity measures in multimodal discourse. Analysis of stylistic use of figurative language on the political stage reveals that multimodality is a powerful mode of figurative meaning construction. Figurative thought determines figurative use. Multimodal case studies bring out the leading role of metaphor as a pattern of thought in conceptualisation of economic and political austerity measures. Metaphorical concepts arise as a reflection of global cross-language and cross-cultural phenomena, emerging in both verbal and multimodal discourse.

Figurative language in general, and metaphor as its most powerful pattern in particular, serves the purposes of conceptual mapping of abstract thought and abstract reasoning. Creative multimodality discloses how thought and language function in verbal, visual and audial representation. Textual and visual representations of the thinking process are profoundly influenced by political, economic, social and cultural processes that lie behind the specific context.

Cognitive linguists recognise that metaphor is a primary tool for understanding and interpreting the world and its developments (Lakoff & Turner 1989). However, metaphorical representation incorporates other figurative modes: metonymy, visual pun, allusion, and irony as part of cohesive conceptual networks, representing people’s experiences and the external world, including multimodal discourse, which is multimodal representation of figurative thought (Naciscione 2010, 2014). Case studies reveal the significance of metaphorical and metonymic conceptualisations, and the use of non-verbal cultural symbols and semiotic elements as representations of reality in political discourse.

Keywords: multimodal discourse, figurative conceptualisation, metaphor, cultural symbols, a cross-language and cross-cultural approach.

Irina Oukhvanova

Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus

Jan Kohanowski University, Kielce, Poland

DISCOURSE EXPERTISE IN THE FIELD OF POLITICAL COMMUNICATION

ABSTRACT

Discourse Studies and Communication Studies are two different though overlapping research directions, and Discourse Linguistics is at their intersection. Our research interests lie in Discourse Linguistics, which being an interdisciplinary and intra-linguistic field, has been theoretically and methodologically grounded in a number of linguistic disciplines (e.g. textual, functional, ethno-, pragma-, cognitive). It has been not only borrowing research methods of both qualitative and quantitative nature from Social sciences and the Humanities at large but also developing its own set of approaches. Grounding and borrowing presuppose sharing and giving, and Discourse Linguistics is open to this, focusing on both theoretical and applied knowledge. Where is the domain of discourse expertise then? Although it may seem evident that this is the field of applied linguistics, its development highly depends on the theoretical basis of linguistics and beyond. The causal genetic approach (CGA) to theoretical modeling of different types of discourse (political discourse included) is an integral approach, which has brought to Discourse Linguistics a number of discourse expertise oriented theories and, thus, new research categories of a cluster type, namely, discourse picture of the world, discourse picture of communicative cortege behavior, and discourse portrait. Within the approach, a number of new reconstructing techniques have been elaborated and applied focusing on paradigmatic and syntagmatic mapping (i.e. cognition processing maps) of discourse content.

The aim of the presentation is to draw attention to discourse as a cluster type object, which carries different types of information packed within certain functional keys. These keys are specific methods to be studied and applied by experts in different types of discourses to solve their specific goals. We aim at demonstrating the scope of possibilities of the methods elaborated within CGA on the example of discourse expertise in the field of political communication.

Key words: Discourse linguistics, discourse expertise, CGA methods, political discourse

Clara Sarmento, Sara Pascoal

Polytechnic Institute of Porto, Portugal

INTERCULTURAL POLYPHONIES AGAINST THE ‘DEATH OF MULTICULTURALISM’: AN ESSAY ON CONCEPTS, PRACTICES AND DIALOGUES

ABSTRACT

This conference approaches intercultural competence and the concept of interculturalism as movement, communication, dynamics, with the purpose of discussing their pragmatic consequences in academia and society. We propose to examine some practices and strategies of cultural interaction, in their perpetual movement, in a dangerous but stimulating indefinition of limits.

In contemporary cultural diversity, past and present, global and local, converge in the analysis of concepts and objects closely related to on-going political, economic, social and cultural transformations. Scientific research is also an area of intersections, of permanent cultural translation, that is, of reinterpretation, of repositioning of symbols and signs within existing hierarchies. This reflection on intercultural competence favours contextualized interpretations that, in their uncertainty, are likely to produce new hypotheses, theories and explanations.

The concept of interculturalism is compared to the concept of multiculturalism, frequently analysed under an ontological approach, as an existing or desired social reality, and widely subjected to a political-ideological study. Conversely, interculturalism is a hermeneutic option, an epistemological approach. There are political implications when distinguishing multiculturalism from interculturalism, which undermine the essentialist tendency of multiculturalism, by building a perception of connection, interaction and hybridism.

Intercultural competence is to be practised both ‘at home’ and abroad, since its scope may encompass the relations between geographically distant cultures, as much as between marginal and mainstream, rich and poor, erudite and popular cultures, all within the same society. It is then possible to understand the diversity of human experience as well as the risk it faces of – due to the limits and exclusions imposed by isolated areas of knowledge – wasting fundamental experience. The concept of interculturalism used here is a palimpsest, an intertextuality with other discourses and texts from the past and the present, that will, in turn, be used in future discourses and texts, through a permanent translation.

Key words: discourse, intercultural, competence, intertextuality

Andrejs Veisbergs

University of Latvia, Latvia

Translation Paradigms (Defensive and Defective) in Latvia during the First Independence Period (1918-1940)

ABSTRACT

Latvia’s brief period of independence (1918/20-1940) saw book publishing on a massive scale. The range of source languages was growing, with English slightly ahead of German in the pre-war years (German was also the main intermediary language), and French and Russian following. The literature translated was also extremely varied, as was quality. The choice of works to be translated was very much in the hands of translators and publishers, who in turn thought of marketing interests. With the advent of cheap books, print runs grew longer and high-quality literature became accessible to a broader public. The authoritarian system since 1934 gently pushed the media in the direction of more substantial and classical values. Print runs were not very long: averaging around 2000. The percentage of translations seems to fluctuate widely, but in the domain of novels, translations always numerically surpassed native production.

Two attitudes could be seen working in combination: the defective stance against the alien (absorbing into Latvian everything that is missing) and the defensive one (defending and absorbing through transformation). Usually this was done through the translation and dissemination of new ideas. Translation was used as a way of influencing the target culture and furthering literary, political and personal interests. The various people involved in this process can be viewed as agents of translation.

A large number of translators were also writers in their native Latvian, many were highly notable ones, but members of other professions frequently produced specialised translations as well. Some individuals gradually become professional translators from the favourite source languages.
Translator visibility grew over time and depended on the status of the work translated. Visibility was high for high-quality texts and lower for the lower end. Translation criticism, however, remained very limited, mainly focusing on the quality of the Latvian, and lambasting pulp-literature translation in general.

Key words: translation, Latvian, source language distribution, translators, publishers, criticism, visibility

Elena Vladimirska

L’Université de Lettonie, Lettonie

Marqueurs discursifs dans une

perspective de le la théorie énonciative de l’intonation et son développement

L'activité de parole est une activité qui souvent se cherche, en mettant en jeu et en articulant les différents « acteurs » de la scène énonciative qui interviennent dans la construction d’un énoncé. Le rôle des marqueurs discursifs dont la sémantique consiste à spécifier le statut du dire, qui constitue leur portée, par rapport à l’état de choses (Paillard, D. 2008, 2011) et à articuler les positions énonciatives (S0/S1/S’0) en fonction de différents degrés d’altérité, s'avère fondamental dans la construction du dire par le sujet.

Dans notre recherche, nous abordons les marqueurs discursifs du français dans une perspective de la théorie énonciative de l’intonation (Morel, M-A, Danon-Boileau, L., 1998) avec une prise en compte des valeurs iconiques et combinatoires des indices prosodiques (les variations de la mélodie (F0), l’intensité et la durée) et mimo-gestuels (le regard et les gestes de la main) (Morel. M-A., Vladimirska, E., 2014). Nous soutenons que la réalisation intonative et mimo-gestuelle des marqueurs discursifs relèvent de la sémantique spécifique de ces marqueurs et constitue un aspect fondamental de leurs études et description.

Mots clés : énonciation, altérité, marqueurs discursifs, prosodie, mimique-gestuelle