From functional to cognitive grammar in stylistic analysis of Golding’s The Inheritors

Systemic Functional Grammar (SFG) is one of the most influential grammars used in stylistics, but more recently the discipline has witnessed a growing body of work using cognitive grammars to explain stylistic effects. This research has tended to make the positive case for cognitive grammar (CG) by demonstrating its similarity to functionalist approaches. However, it is also necessary to say how CG adds to an SFG account of literary effects. To do so, I return to Halliday’s seminal analysis of Golding’s novel, The Inheritors. I use CG to investigate the conceptual processes involved in the reader’s interpretation of the character’s deviant mindstyle and outline some of the ludic and dramatic effects of these reconstrual operations. Thus, whereas SFG focuses on describing the ideational structure of the representations proffered by texts, I argue that a unique affordance of CG is its focus on the readerly construction of meaning

“I can tell the difference between fiction and reality.” Cross-fictionality and Mind-style in Political Rhetoric

In this article, we approach fictionality as a set of semiotic strategies prototypically associated with fictional forms of storytelling (Hatavara and Mildorf, 2017a, 2017b). Whilst these strategies are strongly associated with fiction, they might also be used in non-fictional contexts – or those in which the ontological status of the narrative is ambivalent – to create ‘cross-fictional’ rhetorical effects (Hatavara and Mildorf, 2017b). We focus on one such strategy – the representation of thought and consciousness. Using the concept of ‘mind style’ (Fowler, 1977 and 1996 [1986]; Leech and Short, 1980; Semino, 2007), we investigate the linguistic representation of the British Prime Minister, Theresa May’s, internal monologue in a satirical newspaper article. Throughout the article, the author uses cross-fictionality strategies to represent what May ‘really thinks’ as she delivers a speech to the Conservative Party conference. The stylistic analysis of the Prime Minister’s mind style facilitates an account of the elaborate and nuanced mixing of May and the author’s ideological perspectives throughout the piece. We argue that this cross-fictional, stylistic approach better accounts for the satirical effects of fictionality in the text than those which place a premium on authorial intention and the invented nature of the narrative discourse (for example, Nielsen, Phelan and Walsh, 2015)

Acyl—acyl carrier protein and pool sizes during steady-state fatty acid synthesis by isolated spinach chloroplasts

isolated spinach chloroplast

An analysis of expressed sequence tags of developing castor endosperm using a full-length cDNA library

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Castor seeds are a major source for ricinoleate, an important industrial raw material. Genomics studies of castor plant will provide critical information for understanding seed metabolism, for effectively engineering ricinoleate production in transgenic oilseeds, or for genetically improving castor plants by eliminating toxic and allergic proteins in seeds.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Full-length cDNAs are useful resources in annotating genes and in providing functional analysis of genes and their products. We constructed a full-length cDNA library from developing castor endosperm, and obtained 4,720 ESTs from 5'-ends of the cDNA clones representing 1,908 unique sequences. The most abundant transcripts are genes encoding storage proteins, ricin, agglutinin and oleosins. Several other sequences are also very numerous, including two acidic triacylglycerol lipases, and the oleate hydroxylase (<it>FAH12</it>) gene that is responsible for ricinoleate biosynthesis. The role(s) of the lipases in developing castor seeds are not clear, and co-expressing of a lipase and the FAH12 did not result in significant changes in hydroxy fatty acid accumulation in transgenic Arabidopsis seeds. Only one oleate desaturase (<it>FAD2</it>) gene was identified in our cDNA sequences. Sequence and functional analyses of the castor <it>FAD2 </it>were carried out since it had not been characterized previously. Overexpression of castor FAD2 in a FAH12-expressing <it>Arabidopsis </it>line resulted in decreased accumulation of hydroxy fatty acids in transgenic seeds.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Our results suggest that transcriptional regulation of <it>FAD2 </it>and <it>FAH12 </it>genes maybe one of the mechanisms that contribute to a high level of ricinoleate accumulation in castor endosperm. The full-length cDNA library will be used to search for additional genes that affect ricinoleate accumulation in seed oils. Our EST sequences will also be useful to annotate the castor genome, which whole sequence is being generated by shotgun sequencing at the Institute for Genome Research (TIGR).</p

Straight talking honest politics: Rhetorical style and ethos in the mediated politics of metamodernity

The leader of the British Labour Party, Jeremy Corbyn, is known for his ‘straight talking, honest politics’ (indeed, this was the slogan for his first leadership campaign). This chapter examines the rhetorical construction of authenticity in three videos taken from his official YouTube channel. Some journalists (e.g. Toynbee, 2016) have suggested that the socialist politician’s leadership of the party is symptomatic of the new ‘post-truth’ politics, a political culture in which the rhetorical appeals from ethos and pathos trump those from logos (Browse, 2017: 168). Scholars have pointed to the effect of online media in accelerating this recalibration of what constitutes legitimate argument (Harsin, 2015). This chapter argues that while the term ‘post-truth’ does capture a shift in the kinds of legitimacy claims made by contemporary politicians, it does not adequately explain their causes. Here, they are instead accounted for within the theoretical framework of ‘metamodernism’, which describes the renewed emphasis on “depth” and authenticity in the cultural and political sphere resulting from the economic, political and environmental crises of the 2000s (see van den Akker et al, 2017). Using critical stylistics (Jeffries, 2010) in combination with Chatman’s (1990) notion of the ‘cinematic narrator’, the analyses investigate how the Labour leader and his party’s appeal to authenticity are styled in the videos. Three strategies are identified – Corbyn’s use of populist rhetoric, his allocentric curation of “ordinary” people’s experiences, and the curation of his ethos by others – and these are linked to the renewed sense of historicity, depth and affect that characterise metamodernity. The chapter therefore offers a critical stylistic reading of the socialist politician’s performance of authenticity which is situated with respect to the contemporary metamodern political and media context

Impact of future Arctic shipping on high-latitude black carbon deposition

This is the final version of the article. Available from American Geophysical Union (AGU) via the DOI in this record.The retreat of Arctic sea ice has led to renewed calls to exploit Arctic shipping routes. The diversion of ship traffic through the Arctic will shorten shipping routes and possibly reduce global shipping emissions. However, deposition of black carbon (BC) aerosol emitted by additional Arctic ships could cause a reduction in the albedo of snow and ice, accelerating snowmelt and sea ice loss. Here we use recently compiled Arctic shipping emission inventories for 2004 and 2050 together with a global aerosol model to quantify the contribution of future Arctic shipping to high-latitude BC deposition. Our results show that Arctic shipping in 2050 will contribute less than 1% to the total BC deposition north of 60°N due to the much greater relative contribution of BC transported from non-shipping sources at lower latitudes. We suggest that regulation of the Arctic shipping industry will be an insufficient control on high-latitude BC deposition. Key Points Contribution of Arctic shipping to high-latitude BC deposition less than 1% Extra-Arctic sources contribute much greater Arctic BC mass than local shipping Regulation of Arctic shipping unlikely to control high-latitude BC deposition.J.B. was funded by a studentship from the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) and by the Met Office through a CASE partnership and is now funded by a NERC grant [NE/I028858/1]. K.C. is a Royal Society Wolfson Merit Award holder. A.S.is funded by a NERC grant [NE/I015612/1] and a fellowship from the School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds. The Editor thanks three anonymous reviewers for their assistance in evaluating this paper

Arabidopsis mutants reveal that short- and long-term thermotolerance have different requirements for trienoic fatty acids

The photosynthetic thylakoid has the highest level of lipid unsaturation of any membrane. In Arabidopsis thaliana plants grown at 22°C, approximately 70% of the thylakoid fatty acids are trienoic – they have three double bonds. In Arabidopsis, and other species, the levels of trienoic fatty acids decline substantially at higher temperatures. Several genetic studies indicate that reduced unsaturation improves photosynthetic function and plant survival at high temperatures. Here, these studies are extended using the Arabidopsis triple mutant, fad3-2 fad7-2 fad8 that contains no detectable trienoic fatty acids. In the short-term, fluorescence analyses and electron-transport assays indicated that photosynthetic functions in this mutant are more thermotolerant than the wild type. However, long-term photosynthesis, growth, and survival of plants were all compromised in the triple mutant at high temperature. The fad3-2 fad7-2 fad8 mutant is deficient in jasmonate synthesis and this hormone has been shown to mediate some aspects of thermotolerance; however, additional experiments demonstrated that a lack of jasmonate was not a major factor in the death of triple-mutant plants at high temperature. The results indicate that long-term thermotolerance requires a basal level of trienoic fatty acids. Thus, the success of genetic and molecular approaches to increase thermotolerance by reducing membrane unsaturation will be limited by countervailing effects that compromise essential plant functions at elevated temperatures