Memoranda of understanding, letters of intent and contracts: An analysis of speech acts

The aim of this paper is to explore the differences in the use of modals to create illocutionary acts considering three legal genres, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Letter of Intent (LoI) and the contract. On the one hand, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is an agreement that has hardly been investigated in the existing literature and it is used to establish cooperation in research and in academic/cultural activities between universities. On the other hand, the Letter of Intent is a genre generally used in corporate communication that precedes the MoU in the development of joint research nets. The MoU can be considered as a specific type of contract, thus our research questions are: what are the most significant differences in modal realization among the MoU the LoI and corporate contracts? Are illocutionary acts genres-bound? In particular, thestudy sets out to explore the use of speech acts. Therefore, it focuses on regulative patterns considering the rhetorical functions of directive and commissive acts (Trosborg 1995) in this legal genre. The analysis is based on a corpus of MoUs signed by Anglophone universities (UK – US – AUS). The results obtained are then compared to those of two comparable corpora of contracts and of Letters of Intent (LoI) in order to show differences and similarities in the patterns observed. From a methodological point of view, the study integrates corpus linguistics and discourse analytical perspectives in the investigation of textual data, relying on both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A combination of computational analysis and manual tagging is employed to select all the relevant regulative speech acts in the corpus. Results show that the MoU is a “hybrid genre” (Bhatia 2004), an instance of “interdiscursive colonisation” (Bhatia 2011: 106) in which the directive component of the contract is combined with the commissive one of the Letter of Intent

BROADCASTING LEGAL DISCOURSE: THE POPULARI-ZATION OF FAMILY LAW THROUGH YOUTUBE

New media and Web 2.0 are having a significant impact on science and techno-logy for the communication of specialized topics from experts to non-experts (Garzone 2007). However, only few studies have focused on the popularization of legal discourse (Anesa 2012; Williams 2013) and even fewer on the impact of web genres on its dissemination (Chierichetti 2006; Garzone 2014; Eng-berg/Luttermann 2014). Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no empirical research has been conducted on the use of broadcast platforms, i.e. YouTube, to popularize legal topics. The purpose of this paper is thus to analyze the strategies employed for the popularization of legal discourse (i.e. definitions, denomina-tions, reformulations, exemplifications, cf. Calsamiglia/van Dijk 2004) on You-tube, focusing in particular on the specific branch of Family Law, as one of the most relevant and close to lay-people. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of video clips gathered from the Youtube channel of the well-known British lawyer Marilyn Stowe, the Stowe Family Law YouTube channel. Each video deals with a different topic on Family Law. Textual data is retrieved from the broadcast. From a methodological perspective, recourse to corpus linguistics and discourse analytical tools shall enable us to investigate the popularizing strategies involved (Calsamiglia/van Dijk 2004; Garzone 2006) and the metadiscourse (Hyland 2005a, 2005b) used to guide the non-expert receivers of the video (textual meta-discourse) through legal issues, and to let the audience take part in knowledge construction (interpersonal metadiscourse)

Exploring health literacy: Web-based genres in disseminating specialized knowledge to caregivers. The case of paediatric neurological disorders

This paper aims at analyzing the discursive practices used in web-based informative materials in the specific context of a chronic disease, i.e. neurological disorders resulting in epilepsy, for liaising with caregivers of paediatric patients. The study centres on a corpus of webpages gathered from the websites of the major foundations dealing with paediatric neurological syndromes. From a methodological perspective, the study makes recourse to existing studies on the discursive practices that in the literature on knowledge dissemination are identified as being used to facilitate the layman\u2019s access to specialized scientific knowledge. The overall results show that knowledge dissemination strategies used in the webpages under investigation offer cognitive tools to parents as caregivers in order to make them informed about their children\u2019s disease. These webpages enhance caregiver health literacy and achieve the goal of caregiver empowerment, giving her/his greater control over decisions affecting her/his child\u2019s health

Genre variation and changes in frame sequences across cultures: the case of Criminology RA abstracts in English and French

Though not as widely studied as the Research Article (RA), the abstract has attracted increasing interest among researchers over last decades (Swales 1990, Bhatia 1993, Dos Santos 1996, Lor\ue9s-Sanz 2008, Bondi/Cavalieri 2012, Cavalieri 2014). A number of contrastive or comparative studies of abstracts in English and other languages (Mart\uedn- Mart\uedn 2005, Lor\ue9s Sanz 2006, Van Bonn & Swales 2007, Diani 2014) have already been carried out considering mainly the hard sciences and some soft sciences such as linguistics and history, however no cross-cultural analyses have been conducted so far between RA abstracts in English and RA abstracts in French published in the legal field. This paper seeks to investigate genre variation and changes in frame sequences comparatively in English and French RA abstracts from criminology journals. Using a genre analytical approach to qualitative and quantitative data, the paper reports on two comparable corpora, i.e. English and French, of electronically retrieved abstracts from Criminology Journals published in 2014. The two corpora are composed of three journals per language, namely Criminology, Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology for the English corpus, and Champ P\ue9nal, Criminologie, Revue Canadienne de Droit P\ue9nal et Criminologie for the French corpus. The analysis will be carried out following two main steps, i.e. a macro-analysis and a micro-analysis. In the former step, the corpora are compared by the analysis and discussion of the basic IMRD rhetorical move structure for the RA often proposed in the literature (e.g. Nwogu 1990; Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993; Ventola 1994; Mart\uedn-Mart\uedn 2002) and the additional five moves model postulated by Dos Santos (1996) with the aim of investigating the linguistic and rhetorical variation in the abstract genre from a cross-cultural perspective. In the latter, we look at frame sequences (Bondi/Cavalieri 2012) combining forms of self-mentions and frame markers (Hyland 2005), i.e. personal patterns, impersonal patterns and locational patterns (Dahl 2004). Provisional results show that the abstracts under investigation largely follow the international conventions based on the norms established by the English-speaking international academic community. However, variation across the two cultures emerged from the linguistic realizations of framework sequences. Cross-cultural implications are discussed at the close

EFFECT OF Γ-AMINOBUTYRRIC ACID (GABA) EXPOSURE ON EMBRYOGENESIS OF PARACENTROTUS LIVIDUS AND IDENTIFICATION OF GABA-RECEPTOR GENES IN SEA URCHINS

Developmental processes are controlled by regulatory genes encoding for transcription factors and signaling molecules. Functional relationships between these genes are described by gene regulatory networks (GRN), models which allow integration of various levels of information. The sea urchin embryo is an experimental model system which offers many advantages for the analysis of GRN. Recently, the GRN that governs the biomineralization of the sea urchin embryonic skeleton has begun to be deciphered. Preliminary evidence suggest that the γ- aminobutyric acid (GABA) signaling pathway is involved in skeletal morphogenesis during development of the sea urchin. GABA is a molecule synthesized by nearly all organism, from bacteria to humans, and it acts through ionotropic and metabotropic receptors (GABAA-Rs and GABAB-Rs, respectively). We report that Paracentrotus lividus embryos exposed to GABA at concentrations ranging from 0.01 to 1.0 mM showed aberrations in axial patterning, with a dose dependent effect. Washout experiments allowed to determine that the period of sensitivity is restricted from the blastula to the gastrula stage. In order to identify GABA-R genes we performed a comprehensive in silico analysis in selected sea urchin species (P. lividus, Strongylocentrotus purpuratus, and Lytechinus variegatus), and in phylogenetically related organisms, such as the hemichordate Saccoglossus kowalevskii, the chordate Ciona intestinalis, and the nematode Caenorhabditis elegans. By combining iteration of ab initio predictions and pairwise comparative methods, we identified the orthologous genes encoding for GABAB1 and GABAB2, the two subunits which assemble GABAB-R, and we confirmed that all of these organisms possess a unique α/β GABAA-R gene pair clustered in the genome. Furthermore, we have observed that the reciprocal disposition of GABAA-R genes is also evolutionarily conserved. Interestingly, in adjacent position to these genes, we have identified an additional gene, which shows significant sequence similarity to a invertebrate-specific GABAA-R gene. Indeed, such a gene has been only identified in C. elegans, Drosophila melanogaster, and Nematostella vectensis. We also retrieved several cDNA sequences from staged EST databases of the three sea urchin species inspected, indicating that these genes are actively transcribed during development. Some selected cDNA plasmids were also isolated from P. lividus total RNA samples and fully sequenced. Hypothetical proteins were deduced and used for phylogenetic analysis, including a selection of vertebrate and invertebrate GABAA-R subunit sequences. The resulting phylogenetic tree strongly support the hypothesis that the sea urchins contain genes encoding for both canonical and invertebrate-specific GABAA-R subunits. Such a collection of data should provide a support to better understand the involvement of GABA-signalling pathway in the skeletal GR

Mia Couto e “o desafio do desequilibrista”: verso un nuovo concetto di bilinguismo

Radically discussing a rigid concept of identity, both on a theorical level and through a fiction built on a unceasing dialogue with alterity, Mia Couto outlines a new kind of bilinguism, which comes from an aporethical thought. Avoiding to cancel contemporary Africa traumas, this bilinguism is an alternative and operating identity proposal. Mettendo radicalmente in discussione una concezione rigida dell’identità, sia sul piano teorico sia con una narrativa che si costruisce in un incessante dialogo con l’alterità, Mia Couto delinea un nuovo tipo di bilinguismo, di natura aporetica, il quale, senza obliterare i traumi di cui l’Africa contemporanea è costellata, costituisce una proposta identitaria alternativa e operativa

Pointing in Science: An Analysis of Body and Linguistic Deixis in Nobel Lectures with PowerPoint Slides

Within the last decades, PowerPoint has become a technology and a medium of communication that has contributed to a profound transformation of lecturing and presenting information in academia. However, until recently PowerPoint slideshows have received only limited attention in the fields of discourse analysis and social semiotic research (Djonov and Van Leeuwen 2011; 2012; 2013; Zhao, Djonov and Van Leeuwen 2014). Only a few studies have focused on the design of slideshows (e.g., Campagna 2009; Finn 2010; Rowley-Jolivet 2004) in relation to conference presentations (Degano 2012; Diani 2015; Costa 2017). Moreover, the interplay of speech, pointing, and body formations seems to have been neglected by the discourse analytical literature and has only been considered in the field of sociology (Knoblauch 2008). Pointing, nevertheless, seems to be a peculiar feature of conference presentations supported by PPT slides, allowing knowledge to be located in space. As a consequence, this paper aims to address aspects of linguistic pointing deixis in relation to the PowerPoint slides as well as to the body and gesture deixis of the presenter. To reach this aim, the study adopts a twofold methodology, fusing together Levinson’s theory of spatial deixis (1983) with the sociological approach of Knoblauch (2008) for body formation of pointing. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of nine Nobel lectures (i.e., three in economics; three in medicine; three in chemistry) collected from 2010 to 2015, considering their PowerPoints, their videos, and their transcriptions. Results show that knowledge transfer is defined in Nobel lecture PowerPoint presentations by the combination of speaking and showing, thus becoming presented knowledge rather than representing knowledge itself (Knoblauch 2008, 75)

Medial femoral condyle free flap for carpo-metacarpal instability following hamate comminute fracture

Complete reconstruction of the hamate bone has been reported in the literature mostly following cancer excision or avascular necrosis. For the exiguity of the tissue deficit, bone grafting has usually been used as treatment option for its rapidity and easiness to perform, even if a variable amount of bone resorption may occur. In traumatic cases, microbial contamination may jeopardize the success of a well performed bone graft and vascularised bone grafts may represent a better reconstructive option. Here we describe the first case reported in the literature of a patient underwent complete hamate reconstruction following trauma with an osseous medial femoral condyle free flap as vascularized arthrodesis between the capitate and the 4th MTC base, in order to stabilize the 4th and 5th finger and the ulnar carpo-metacarpal joint