This book presents research into various types of professional discourse through the prism of the functional linguistics approach. Focusing mainly on practical aspects of speech, the book discusses various topics, such as structural, semantic, cognitive and pragmatic characteristics of professional discourse, argumentation strategies, humour in professional discourse, and word-building processes. It also highlights communicative effectiveness methods in professional discourse. Offering new ideas and discussing the latest findings, the book is intended for researchers, lecturers and professionals in the field.

Examining how diverse social identities are constructed in digital communication in China, this edited collection provides a multidimensional exploration of the diverse, discursive forms and practices used to construct and present the “self” online. Contributing authors provide analyses of China’s digital communication platforms, such as social media platforms, news websites and short video applications, drawing from a wealth of data to study daily practices of digital performance of identity and maintenance of social bonds. Comprised of nine chapters, this essential volume is divided into three distinct sections, taking a hierarchical approach to analysing social identities within Chinese digital communication at the micro, meso and macro levels. Diverse methodologies are applied throughout, incorporating insights from both linguistic theories and semiotic or textually oriented analyses, while also considering the wider societal contexts. Readers are encouraged to analyse the main features of this digital culture and to investigate how language and discourse are encountered through media. This book will be of value to a wide variety of scholars and students in sociolinguistics, communication studies and Asian studies.

The book addresses the challenge of living in a multilingual world from three perspectives: socio-linguistics and the study of multilingualism in contrast, philosophy of technology with its emphasis on the world as a technosphere—how it is made, how it is experienced, and how it can be managed, and then pedagogy and the question of teaching and learning to competently negotiate multilingual environments. In today‘s multicultural and multilingual world, technologies provide a common ground. The story of the technosphere as a multilingual environment offers new perspective, namely that of learning to cooperate and coordinate.

Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics is a series of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in applied linguistics, primarily designed for those beginning postgraduate studies, or taking an introductory MA course, as well as for advanced undergraduates. Titles in the series are also ideal for language professionals returning to academic study. The books take an innovative ‘practice-to-theory’ approach, with a ‘back-to-front’ structure. This leads the reader from real-world problems and issues, through a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns, before finally relating these practical issues to theoretical foundations. Additional features include tasks with commentaries, a glossary of key terms and an annotated further reading section. Exploring Professional Communication provides an accessible overview of the vast field of communication in professional contexts from an applied linguistics perspective. It explores the nature of professional communication by discussing various fundamental topics relevant for an understanding of this area. The book is divided into eight chapters, each dealing with a specific area of professional communication, such as genres of professional communication, identities in the workplace and key issues of gender, leadership and culture. Although the book’s main approach to professional communication is an applied linguistics one, it also draws on insights from a range of other disciplines. This second edition has been substantially revised and updated and includes coverage of the most recent developments in the area. New topics include: Remote and virtual communication, as well as technology-assisted communication The impact of the pandemic on professional communication Gender in professional communication post-#metoo Intersectional issues A new chapter on researching professional communication Throughout, Stephanie Schnurr takes an interactive approach that is reflected in the numerous examples of authentic discourse data, from a variety of written, spoken and multimodal contexts. Exploring Professional Communication is critical reading for postgraduate and upper undergraduate students of applied linguistics and communication studies.

One of many natural sign languages in use around the world, British Sign Language (BSL) operates as a fully-fledged semiotic system in the visual-spatial modality, through the simultaneous use of embodied articulators. Filling a gap in current research, this book investigates visual-spatial communications from a functional perspective. Presenting a description and analysis of BSL from the perspective of Hallidayan Systemic Functional Linguistics, Luke A. Rudge explores how BSL users make meaning from three different yet interrelated perspectives: - How exchanges of information are managed at a social level (the interpersonal metafunction) - How experience is encoded in the language (the experiential metafunction) - How communications are organised into coherent parts and wholes (the textual metafunction) Examining these perspectives both separately and together, Exploring British Sign Language via Systemic Functional Linguistics places them within the context of current observations in sign linguistics, providing a complementary viewpoint on how visual-spatial communications may be understood as social semiosis.

Exploring Discourse Practices in Romanian is a glimpse into Romanians’ style of interaction, which has developed eclectically at the crossroads of Eastern and Western cultures. It is oriented towards modern literacy while being deeply rooted in a long oral tradition, and paradoxically displays both attachment to local specifics and commitment to mimetic speech and act(ion)s imported from various cultural spaces. The book presents a characterisation of the Romanian cultural space in terms of various discourse practices, drawing on recent challenging theoretical proposals, and concluding with in-depth corpus-based analyses. The chapters focus on five main topics (the co-construction of discursive identities, discursive polyphony, textualisation of attitudes and emotions, conceptual metaphors, and grammaticalisation of context) explored in various discourse genres (political discourse, media discourse, professional discourse, face-to-face conversation, literature of memoires, and the usage of Romanian by non-natives). The theoretical framework utilised here is discourse analysis, defined in a broad sense (with regards to discourse patterns, pragmatic phenomena, conversation analysis, and rhetoric). The volume, having both a theoretical and an applied dimension, will appeal to an international readership, including researchers interested in current developments of pragmatics and discourse analysis.

This volume offers readers interested in Discourse Analysis and/or Socio-Cognitive models of language a closer view of the relationship between discourse, cognition and society by disclosing how the cognitive mechanisms of discourse processing depend on shared knowledge and situated cognition. An inter- and multidisciplinary approach is proposed that combines theories and methodologies coming from Conceptual Metaphor Theory, Multimodal Metaphor Theory, Critical Discourse Analysis, Narratology, Systemic Functional Linguistics, Appraisal Theory, together with the most recent developments of Socio-Cognitive Linguistics, for the analysis of real communicative events, which range from TV reality shows, commercials, digital stories or political debates, to technical texts, architectural memorials, newspapers and autobiographical narratives. Still, several key notions are recurrent in all contributions -embodiment, multimodality, conceptual integration, metaphor, and creativity- as the fundamental constituents of discourse processing. It is only through this wide-ranging epistemological and empirical approach that the complexity of discourse strategies in real contexts, i.e. human communication, can be fully comprehended, and that discourse analysis and cognitive linguistics can be brought closer together.

Presents a collection of fourteen essays that responds to the need for a more rhetorical conception of professional communication as an international discipline. This book challenges the adequacy of relying on preconceived notions about the factors that determine discourse in international professional settings.

Routledge Introductions to Applied Linguistics consists of introductory level textbooks covering the core topics in Applied Linguistics, designed for those entering postgraduate studies and language professionals returning to academic study. The books take an innovative "practice to theory" approach, with a ‘back to front’ structure which takes the reader from real life problems and issues in the field, then enters into a discussion of intervention and how to engage with these concerns. The final section concludes by tying the practical issues to theoretical foundations. Additional features include tasks with commentaries, a glossary of key terms, and an annotated further reading section. Corpus linguistics is a key area of applied linguistics and one of the most rapidly developing. Winnie Cheng’s practical approach guides readers in acquiring the relevant knowledge and theories to enable the analysis, explanation and interpretation of language using corpus methods. Throughout the book practical classroom examples, concordance based analyses and tasks such as designing and conducting mini-projects are used to connect and explain the conceptual and practical aspects of corpus linguistics. Exploring Corpus Linguistics is an essential textbook for post-graduate/graduate students new to the field and for advanced undergraduates studying English Language and Applied Linguistics.