Typeface effects in written language: functions of typeface change for signalling meaning within text

Typeface change is one of the resources of written language which, in combination with other paralinguistic signs available to that system (use of space, punctuation, syntax manipulation are examples), can facilitate the author's intended interpretation. The thirteen studies undertaken for this research project explored the effects of typeface manipulations upon subjects' interpretations of brief texts, testing the efficiency of two conventional forms of emphasis, capital letters and italic print. Studies one to four specifically addressed issues of distinction between the two typefaces. It was found that both forms of typeface could function to intensify certain adjectives on a simple measurement scale, with capital letters providing quantifiably `more' to a referent than italics, as italics did over plain case. Both typefaces were tested for their ability to provide modulatory or contrastive emphasis for a word, where it was found that effects differed between the typefaces, suggesting divergent functions. Subjects' responses to a direct request to describe differences between capital and italic print, supported these findings. Studies five to nine examined the effects of typeface change and sentence sequence upon texts, by asking subjects to rank versions where these variables were manipulated. Strong concordances were found to be linked to information structure within the texts. Study ten took the same set of texts and presented versions individually to subjects in a story continuation task. The effects of emphasis and information sequence which were found suggest again the importance of content, which cooperated or conflicted with other paralinguistic signals in a text. The `foregrounding' effect of typeface emphasis on secondary information increased its availability for the production of continuation content. Studies eleven to thirteen looked at typeface change as a facility for signalling theme maintenance or enhancement, operating to disambiguate texts by reinforcing their `default' or natural readings, as well as its efficiency in signalling theme shift by contrastive emphasis. Different strategies of typeface emphasis were found to function for each of these requirements. Throughout all the studies, both forms of typeface emphasis were tested, either in contrast or in combination. Evidence accumulated to suggest that capital letters functioned best for providing modulatory emphasis, italic print for contrastive. Outside this issue of individual differences, typeface change itself was found to be an efficient strategy for indicating the author's intended interpretation to the reader

Explicating and applying Louw's corpus stylistic contextual prosodic theory using English and Russian texts Изложение и практическое применение корпусно-стилистической контекстуально-просодической теории Лоу на материале английского и русского языков

Циљ ове докторске дисертације јесте да се проучи и докаже научна валидност корпусно-стилистичке контекстуално-прозодијске теорије, коју је предложио Бил Лоу (Louw 1993, 2000, 2010a, 2010). Истраживање треба да покаже да велики, репрезентативан и избалансиран референтни корпус датог језика садржи довољну количину емпиријских података да омогући знатно прецизније читање ауторског текста него што је то било могуће у аналогном периоду. Потребно је доказати да је Лоуова теорија – самосталан и логички непротивречан научни систем, и да има потпуно самосталан комплет истраживачких инструмената који може податке добијене коришћењем других научних метода да подвргне анализи и провери сопственим поузданим и објективним средствима (Кожин 2011: 210)...The goal of this dissertation is to confirm the scientific validity of Louw's corpus stylistic Contextual Prosodic Theory (Louw 1993, 2000, 2010a, 2010b). The dissertation aims to show that a large, balanced and representative corpus of a given language contains sufficient empirical data to allow much more precise reading of authorial texts than it was possible in the analogue period. It aims to prove that Louw's theory is an independent and coherent scientific system and that it has at its disposal an independent set of tools, which can use its own reliable and objective procedures to verify data obtained by other scientific methodologies. (Кожин 2011: 210)..

Address and the Semiotics of Social Relations

This thesis is concerned with the realm of the interpersonal: broadly, those linguistic phenomena involved in the negotiation of social relations and the expression of personal attitudes and feelings. The initial contention is that this realm has been consistently marginalised not only within linguistic theory, but more broadly within western culture, for cultural and ideological reasons whose implications extend into the bases of classical linguistic theory. Chapter 1 spells out the grounds for this contention and is followed by two further chapters, constituting Part I: Language and Social Relations. Chapter 2 identifies and critiques the range of ways in which the interpersonal has been conventionally interpreted: as style, as formality, as politeness, as power and solidarity, as the expressive, etc. This chapter concludes with an argument for the need for a stratified model of language in order to deal adequately with these phenomena. Chapter 3 proposes such a model, based on the systemic-functional approach to language as social semiotic. The register category tenor within this model is extended to provide a model of social relations as a semiotic system. The basis for the identification of the three tenor dimensions, power, distance and affect, is the identification of three modes of deployment or realisation of the interpersonal resources of English in everyday discourse: reciprocity, proliferation and amplification. Parts II and III turn their attention to one significant issue in the negotiation of social relations: address. The focus is explicitly on Australian English, but there is considerable evidence that most if not all of the forms discussed in Part II occur in other varieties of English, especially British and American, and that some at least of the practices discussed in Part III involve the same patterns of social relations with respect to the tenor dimensions of power, distance and affect. Because most varieties of contemporary English do not have a set of options for second-person pronominal address, as is the case in many of the world's languages, English speakers use names and other nominal forms which need to be described. Part II is descriptive in orientation, providing an account of the grammar of VOCATION in English, including a detailed description of the nominal forms used. Chapter 4 investigates the identification and functions of vocatives, and includes empirical investigations of vocative position in clauses and vocative incidence in relation to speech function or speech act choices. Chapter 5 presents an account of the grammar of English name forms, organised as a paradigmatic system. This chapter incorporates an account of the processes used to produce the various name-forms used in address, including truncation, reduplication and suffixation. Chapter 6 consists of an account of non-name forms of address, organised in terms of the systemic-functional account of nominal group structure. This chapter deals with single-word non-name forms of address and the range of nominal group structures used particularly to communicate attitude, both positive and negative. Part III is ethnographic in orientation. It describes some aspects of the use of the forms described in Part II in contemporary address practice in Australia and interprets such practice using the model of social relations as semiotic system presented in Part I. The major focuses of attention is on address practice in relation to the negotiation of gender relations, with some comment on generational relations of adults with children, on class relations and on ethnic relations in nation with a diverse population officially committed to a policy of a multiculturalism. Part III functions simultaneously as a coda for this thesis, and a prologue for the kind of ethnographic study that the project was originally intended to be, but which could not be conducted in the absence of an adequate linguistically-based model of social relations and an adequate description of the resources available for address in English