Contrastive media analysis is a vast field of academic research that - metaphorically speaking - comes in many shapes and sizes and therefore is confronted by manifold theoretical and methodological challenges. This contribution focuses on two interrelated aspects: a) the problem of equivalence as a prerequisite of comparison and b) the comparative constellation and its effects on the interpretation of cultural variance. It is important to mention that the discussion in this paper is set against the backdrop of a genre-based approach. Starting from the - initially rather unspectacular - observ.

The study of media, texts and culture(s) and especially the analysis of interdependent relationships between them has become a major concern in various academic fields, such as intercultural communication, contrastive textology, comparative cultural studies, historical and intercultural pragmatics. Starting from the observation that in contrastive studies of mass media communication not only the theoretical status of “culture” often remains unclear but also the interdependent relation between the theoretical conceptualization of “culture” and the methodological approach of text analysis, this volume brings together linguistic mass media studies with intercultural, diachronic, intermedia and interlingual perspectives. Apart from offering new empirical insights into the field, this volume’s aim is to advance and to broaden the methodological and theoretical discussions involved. Comparing such diverse formats and genres like newspapers, TV news shows, TV commercials, radio phone-ins, obituaries, fanzines and film subtitles, the contributions of this volume illustrate the complexity of the growing field of contrastive media analysis.

The Manual section of the Handbook of Pragmatics, produced under the auspices of the International Pragmatics Association (IPrA), is a collection of articles describing traditions, methods, and notational systems relevant to the field of linguistic pragmatics; the main body of the Handbook contains all topical articles. The first edition of the Manual was published in 1995. This second edition includes a large number of new traditions and methods articles from the 24 annual installments of the Handbook that have been published so far. It also includes revised versions of some of the entries in the first edition. In addition, a cumulative index provides cross-references to related topical entries in the annual installments of the Handbook and the Handbook of Pragmatics Online (at https://benjamins.com/online/hop/), which continues to be updated and expanded. This second edition of the Manual is intended to facilitate access to the most comprehensive resource available today for any scholar interested in pragmatics as defined by the International Pragmatics Association: “the science of language use, in its widest interdisciplinary sense as a functional (i.e. cognitive, social, and cultural) perspective on language and communication.”

This is the first volume to focus on the role of media in processes of linguistic change, one of the most contested issues in contemporary sociolinguistics. Its 17 chapters and five section commentaries present cutting-edge research from variationist and interactional sociolinguistics, media linguistics, language ideology research, and minority language studies. The volume advances our understanding of linguistic change in a mediatized world in three ways. First, it introduces the notions of sociolinguistic change and mediatization to create a broader theoretical framing than the one offered by ‘the media’ and ‘language change’. Second, it takes the discussion beyond the notions of ‘influence’ and ‘effect’ and the binary distinction of ‘media’ vs. ‘community language’. Third, it examines the relation of sociolinguistic change and mediatization and from five complementary viewpoints: media influence on linguistic structure; media engagement in interaction; change in mass and new media language; language-ideological change; and the role of media for minority languages. Bringing these strands of sociolinguistic scholarship together, this volume examines their shared references and common lines of thinking.

What do we need to know about language and why do we need to know it? Providing the essential tools with which to analyse and talk about language, this book demonstrates the relevance of linguistics to our understanding of the world around us. This second edition includes: - Discussion of key areas of contemporary interest, such as neo-pronouns, translanguaging, and communication in the digital arena -Two brand new chapters exploring language and identity, and language and social media - A range of new and international examples - New and updated references and suggested readings - Tasks to aid learning at the end of each chapter - A glossary of key terms. Introducing a set of practical tools for language analysis and using numerous examples of authentic communicative activity, such as overheard conversations, social media posts, advertisements and public announcements, Why Do Linguistics? explores language and language use from a social, intercultural and multilingual perspective, showing how this kind of analysis works and what it can tell us about social interaction. Also accompanied by a new companion website featuring audio, video and other supportive resources for students and teachers, this book will help you to become an informed, active noticer of language.

Seduction is a complicated concept that is a part of the general human experience. Despite the prevalence of seduction in our personal lives as well as within popular culture, the concept has not been widely discussed and researched as an academic field. Seduction in Popular Culture, Psychology, and Philosophy explores the concept of seduction and the many ways it can be understood, either as a social and individual practice, a psychological trait, or a schema for manipulation. Taking a cross-disciplinary approach, this publication features research-based chapters relevant to sociologists, media professionals, psychologists, philosophers, advertising professionals, researchers, and graduate level students studying in related areas.

Politeness and impoliteness are not just expressed by words. People communicate polite and impolite attitudes towards each other through their intonation, tone of voice, their facial expressions, their gestures, the positioning of their bodies towards each other, and so on. This volume brings together eleven empirical studies that investigate these various modalities of im/politeness across signed, spoken and written languages, plus a detailed introductory chapter that establishes a framework for the multimodal investigation of im/politeness. The papers cover a range of languages and cultures, including Swiss German Sign Language, Catalan Sign Language, English (as a native language and as a lingua franca), Korean, Catalan, Persian, Japanese and Spanish. Using a range of data sources and state-of-the art methodologies, the papers reveal that these multimodal features are essential aspects of im/politeness across different languages, cultures and modes of interaction. Put together, the findings from these studies lay the groundwork for a new understanding of im/politeness which is fundamentally multimodal.

Research in Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics has experienced a significant increase in contributions from varying fields of language studies, gaining the attention of scholars from all over the world. This volume aims to showcase the variety of topics relevant to the study of language(s) in colonial, postcolonial and decolonial contexts. A main reason of this variety is that the new paradigm invites and necessitates research on different subject matters such as language typology, grammar and cross-linguistics, meta-linguistics and research on language ideology, discourse analysis and pragmatics. The contributions of this volume are selected, peer-reviewed papers which were partly invited and partly given at the First Bremen Conference on Colonial and Postcolonial Linguistics, held in September 2013.

Writing matters, and so does research into real-life writing. The shift from an industrial to an information society has increased the importance of writing and text production in education, in everyday life and in more and more professions in the fields of economics and politics, science and technology, culture and media. Through writing, we build up organizations and social networks, develop projects, inform colleagues and customers, and generate the basis for decisions. The quality of writing is decisive for social resonance and professional success. This ubiquitous real-life writing is what the present handbook is about. The de Gruyter Handbook of Writing and Text Production brings together and systematizes state-of-the-art research. The volume contains five sections, focussing on (I) the theory and methodology of writing and text production research, as well as on problem-oriented and problem-solving approaches related to (II) authors, (III) modes and media, (IV) genres, and (V) domains of writing and text production. Throughout the 21 chapters, exemplary research projects illustrate the theoretical perspectives from globally relevant research spaces and traditions. Both established and future scholars can benefit from the handbook’s fresh approach to writing in the context of multimodal, multi-semiotic text production.