Vol 10, No 1 (2018)

De l’emploi des métaphores dans la communication numérique. S’interroger au delà des apparences immédiates  (PDF)

Pierre Morelli

Résumé: Sous l’impulsion des technologies contemporaines, la réalité change et cette « réalité en mutation » ne peut plus être représentée avec les outils traditionnels. Paradoxalement, malgré cette incapacité à appréhender la réalité à partir d’outils traditionnels se développe une appétence pour l’emploi d’emprunts au passé, métaphores destinées à décrire et parfois même à penser les dispositifs numériques. Face à la complexité croissante introduite par le développement de la communication numérique mais aussi par volonté de marquer une coupure avec le passé dont la terminologie peine à représenter les mécanismes et figures émergents, s’est ainsi progressivement installée dans la littérature scientifique une terminologie métaphorique. À penser la communication numérique contemporaine à travers des images empruntées aux mondes et dispositifs antérieurs au numérique ne s’enferme-t-on pas dans une perspective de transfert de l’existant alors qu’il faudrait construire de nouveaux cadres et les mettre à l’épreuve de nos questionnements ? Nous proposons d’engager ici une réflexion afin de libérer le rapport que nous entretenons avec les métaphores immédiates et souvent trompeuses utilisées pour qualifier les dispositifs numériques contemporains sans jamais vraiment en critiquer la portée et les limites, afin de pouvoir en vérifier la valeur, en contexte. Il s’agit d’aller au delà (ou en deçà) des évidences qui président à l’adoption d’emprunts conceptuels ou de métaphores lesquelles gagnent à devenir bien plus que des figures illustratives ou des modèles explicatifs. L’étude de la communication numérique gagne à mobiliser des outils scientifiques importés moins pour illustrer le propos ou ajouter en valeur scientifique que pour affuter notre regard et ouvrir des espaces et des directions nouvelles aux questionnements..

Boxer Pants, G-String, Stockings and You Know What Gear:Towards Lexical Fields Aided Vocabulary Instruction  (PDF)

Grzegorz A. Kleparski, Anna Borkowska

Abstract. The major objective set to this paper is to investigate the problem of how lexical fields may be applied in vocabulary teaching at various proficiency levels of formal education, namely the primary and secondary school. The analysis of several lexical fields, such as ANIMALS, SPORTS, TRANSPORT, and HOSPITAL indicates that word groupings may be delimited by the age of the students, proficiency level as well as cognitive skills. Rather unsurprisingly, teaching materials are more complex for older students but, at the same time, children may also be provided with lexical affinities, be it synonyms, antonyms or basic collocations. The experiments conducted among two different English philology groups were aimed at viewing CLOTHES and UNDERWEAR as multidimensional and thought-provoking fields which may successfully stimulate students to identify relationships between particular lexical items. The experiment proved to be beneficial for the didactic process owing to the fact that grouping has long been recognised as one of the most effective ways of introducing lexical items. The participants exemplified a variety of subcategories, and although some of them seem fairly obvious, it must be concluded that lexical fields as such encouraged the language learners to think critically and carefully since particular elements may be perceived as politically incorrect and inappropriate in actual teaching practice.

The Metaphor of Strugglein Communication of the Evolutionary Theory  (PDF)

Anna Drogosz

Abstract: The objective of the paper is a Conceptual Metaphor Theory analysis of the metaphor of struggle in Darwin’s theory. The study begins with a short survey of uses of the concept of “struggle for existence” predating Darwin’s book followed by a systematic analysis of linguistic manifestation of this metaphor in The Origin of Species. It is argued that the rich elaboration of the conceptual metaphor RELATIONSHIPS IN NATURE ARE STRUGGLES in Darwin’s theory (e.g. as war, battle, conquest, competition, race) results from multiple functions it plays in framing of the theory, that is the theory-constitutive, exegetical, catachretic, and rhetorical function.

 Advertising

Marketing Post-Communist Nostalgia in Romania:A Case Study on Contemporary Anniversary Events  (PDF)

Alexandra Bardan

Abstract. This article explores the concept of “post-communist nostalgia” in Romania within the younger, post-communist generations, focusing on specific leisure practices such as communist themed parties organized by nightclubs. The first part of the paper focuses on the theoretical framework of the study and on the more general subject of nostalgia, to question the place of post-communist nostalgia in the broader context of collective memory. The second part examines the communist themed parties related to alternative memory practices in the Eastern European countries, and views this phenomenon from a local perspective, using a case study approach combining field research, participant observation and content analysis. The results indicate the “post-communist nostalgia” theme to be more of a marketing argument, rather than the expression of youngsters’ attachment to a bygone era, while also raising new questions on the emergence of this theme in the local popular culture.

Exploring Advertising Texts in Nigeriawithin the Framework of Cohesive Influence  (PDF)

Taofeek DALAMU

 Abstract. The thrust of the study explicates the utilization of grammatical and lexical devices in the texts of advertisements in Nigeria. This exploration aimed at demonstrating the way that advertising professionals wisely move from disjunctive organic elements to clause complexes as a convincing strategy. The advertisements of UBA®, Toyota®, Wema®, etisalat®, Standard Chartered® and Stanbic IBTC® were chosen as analyzable data to explain the behavior of the clause and its complexes in advertising. The conceptual framework is cohesion. Cohesive facilities have been applied as sub-concepts to interpret the constituents of the texts. The study demonstrates that reference, repetition, synonym, fragmented structure are deployed as inciting devices in the discursive strategy. In that sense, the study has the capacity to assist scholars to understand the nature of linguistic elements in clause complexes of advertisements. The analysis also reveals to advertising experts the cohesive resources that can help communicators to achieve intended goals of excitement. The study illuminates the extent at which advertisers take advantage of and associate with events in society to campaign their goods and services to consumers.

  Miscellaneous

Style and Values – a Case Study of Theologian’s Lectures  (PDF)

Dorota Brzozowska

Abstract. The aim of the paper is to analyse the stylistic methods Krzysztof Grzywocz uses in talking about values in his lectures published in the book W duchu i przyjaźni [In spirit and friendship]. It is the whole book, six hundred pages of his collected works, but in particular the one-hundred-page long chapter entitled “The Value of a Human Being”, which is the focus of this paper. The multilayer and interdisciplinary approach to values could be observed in those texts. The author was a theologian, psychotherapist, exorcist and aesthetician, a man who appreciated literature, art, and beauties of everyday life. He was both a theoretician and practitioner of axiology. He answers the questions what values are, what their functions are, what their role in human life is, what their lack means, and what to do in order to appreciate the value of our own life and that of others. The individual communication style of the lecturer is analysed as well as meaning of his message.