The construction of medical knowledge. A semantic taxonomy of processes

The semiotic reality of medical discourse is linguistically organised into figures arranged in the grammar of the clause. Each clause is comprised of entities and processes in various relationships to each other. The writers of medical texts represent and bestow meaning on their experience of the world by choosing from among a selection of different types of figures: of happening, sensing, doing, being, having, and saying. Processes play a central role in figures since they provide their own models for construing the experiential content and organising the information flow of medical texts. The rich architecture of Systemic Functional Linguistics can provide the theoretical background and analytical tools for a thorough investigation of the linguistic selections made by medical writers to convey clinical knowledge. Considering this key role, the present paper aims at investigating the most frequent verbs used as processes in a corpus of medical research articles. The study reveals that the most recurrent verbs used as processes in this type of textual configuration share semantic features. This makes it possible to propose a taxonomic approach to processes with a view to studying their grammatical configuration and the discourse functions they serve

The Voice of Authority Vis-a-Vis the Covid-19 Pandemic

Although it has not been considered as criticism, the World Health Organization (WHO) represents an authoritative voice when it comes to managing health issues, especially those concerning the recent epidemiological emergency. Since the outbreak of the recent COVID-19 pandemic, there has also been an infodemic, an overabundance of information, which makes it difficult to separate the ‘wheat from the chaff’, true from fake news. This paper focuses on carrying out a semio-linguistic analysis in an effort to explore the communicative traits of the communiqués issued by WHO. To this end, the linguistic and discursive strategies used to foster an impression of truthfulness and create trust regarding the information concerning the Coronavirus pandemic were explored. The analysis strives to highlight the interplay of simulacra and semantic configurations functional to the ‘discursive efficiency’ of the official statements of the organization

The search for values as a didactic tool - an interdisciplinary perspective

The present article explores the didactic potentialities of an interdisciplinary approach intended for university, master or doctorate courses where the development of professional strategies and the acquisition of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) are the main target. By exploiting a heuristic method provided by semiotics, namely Floch’s Axiological Square, students can acquire the toolkit that permits them to analyse the process of value creation as well as the discursive procedures and lexical peculiarities typical of corporate communication. Although the focus is on pharmaceutical discourse, we are convinced that the methodological apparatus illustrated here is potentially applicable to other ESP domains and that it highlights the importance of dialogue between apparently distant disciplines for better educational outcomes

New molecular approaches in the diagnosis and prognosis of thyroid cancer patients

Thyroid nodules are very common in the adult population, but only a minority of them harbor a malignant lesion. Therefore, the first aim in their clinical evaluation is to exclude malignancy. To date, the fine-needle aspiration cytology (FNAC) represents the main diagnostic tool for the evaluation of thyroid nodules and cervical lymph nodes (CLN) suspected of metastatic disease. It has to be mentioned, however, that FNAC on thyroid nodules suffers from a major diagnostic limit represented by cellular atypias of indeterminate significance, which require the histological diagnosis. Also the FNAC performed on CLN may be a challenging diagnostic category as CLN could harbor metastases from a multiplicity of extrathyroidal malignancies or be affected by several non-tumoral diseases. In addition, inadequate cellularity obtained from both thyroid nodules or CLN prevents diagnosis in about 20% of specimens. Total thyroidectomy followed by adjuvant therapy with 131I is the treatment of choice for most patients affected by DTC. Although the prognosis of DTC patients is favorable, about 20% of them face the morbidity of disease recurrence and tumor-related deaths. Thus far, the prognosis of these patients still relies on clinic-pathological variables such as patient’s age, tumor size, histology, lymph node or distant metastasis, which are not accurate in predicting the long-term outcome. As a consequence, the identification of new molecular biomarkers strictly related to the risk of DTC relapse is highly needed. In the present review we’ll attempt to summarize the recent characterization of new molecular markers able to ameliorate the diagnosis and prognosis of thyroid cancer patients

Thyroid autoantibodies and breast cancer

Dear Editor We read with interest the recent article by Shi and colleagues (2014) reporting a meta-analysis on the relationship between thyroid hormones, thyroid autoantibodies and breast cancer (BC). In the paper, the authors analyzed eight different studies, including 4,189 participants, and concluded that serum levels of free-triiodothyronine, thyroperoxidase and thyroglobulin autoantibodies are higher in patients affected by BC, compared with the control group. These findings are in agreement with the meta-analysis reported by Hardefeldt and colleagues, showing an increased risk of BC in patients with autoimmune thyroid disease, and with a recent article by our group in which the prevalence of BC in 3,921 female patients affected by both benign and malignant thyroid diseases was evaluated (Hardefeldt et al., 2012; Prinzi et al., 2014). In the latter, we showed that the prevalence of BC in patients affected by thyroid disease, as a whole, was significantly higher, compared to the general population (OR 3.3). Moreover, the age-matched analysis showed that the risk of BC was higher in younger patients (0–44 yr, OR 15.2), to decline with the increasing age. In the same study, when patients were dichotomized based on the presence or the absence of thyroglobulin and/or thyroperoxidase autoantibodies, both groups showed a higher risk of BC, compared to the general female population. When the two groups were compared to each other, however, the risk of BC was significantly lower in autoantibody positive patients. Thus, as clearly stated in our article, among patients affected by thyroid diseases, the presence of thyroid autoantibodies may have a protective role against BC (Prinzi et al., 2014). As a consequence, the sentence reported by Shi and colleagues in the Discussion section of their article stating that their findings are in disagreement with our data is not correct and should be, if at all possible, amended

Captivating cities. A linguistic journey into some of Italy’s richest urban treasure troves

The quantitative and qualitative analysis carried out here is based on an analysis of data retrieved from a small, specialized corpus of descriptions of cities drawn from the websites of some leading British tour operators engaged in promoting Italy. Comparison emerges as a semantic category inherent to the language of tourism, which is exploited variously to present and emphasize some of Italy’s most illustrious cities to potential visitors, in hopes of making these venues attractive to them. The first part of the study examines different types of explicit-comparison construal used to make the attractive traits of a city equal to or different from those found elsewhere. The second part highlights the implicitly comparative nature of many evaluative adjectives that function as Epithets, while the final section deals with the semantic make-up of some recurrent expressions used as Numeratives

Le passioni del viaggio

Ė opinione diffusa che il catalogo di viaggi, disponibile nelle agenzie di viaggio (a volte chiamato in gergo anche brochure o dépliant), sia uno strumento di informazione e promozione fondamentale per un Tour Operator. La scelta di un viaggio dipende molto spesso proprio dall’incontro felice con questo microuniverso testuale. Il catalogo, in quanto testo, si regge su una forma profonda di tipo narrativo. Ė il racconto del congiungimento del turista con il prodotto turistico. Nel prefigurare questo incontro e nella sua messa in discorso, il catalogo costruisce un oggetto cognitivo, pragmatico e passionale: fa sapere, fa fare, fa sentire. Il corpus indagato è costituito da cinque cataloghi, un campione limitato ma rappresentativo, in grado di far affiorare le forme soggiacenti, ovvero gli elementi costanti che, al di sotto della superficie mutevole dei singoli cataloghi, ricorrono in maniera costante. Il ricorso agli strumenti analitici forniti dalla semiotica di origine greimasiana e i contributi della socio-semiotica permetteranno di rintracciare nei testi presi in esame una narratività profonda e di cogliere i momenti dello Schema Narrativo Canonico. L’obiettivo è quello di svelare le procedure di significazione a partire dalle quali si produce l’immagine del sogno raggiungibile, della vacanza ideale. L’impiego dei modelli narrativi usati dalla semiotica permetterà di ripercorrere il cammino fatto dal senso, dai livelli più profondi a quelli più superficiali del testo, e di portare alla luce le strategie tipiche del discorso turistico nella costruzione dell’immagine del prodotto vacanza che ne permettono la desiderabilità e quindi l’acquisto.It is generally believed that the catalogues we find in travel agencies, sometimes called brochures, are an indispensable part of a tour operator’s promotional tool box. People’s travel choices often depend on a felicitous encounter with this textual micro-universe. Catalogues, as texts, rest upon a profound type of narrative. They tell the story of a conjunction between the tourist and the product on sale. By prefiguring the meeting between the two and realising it as discourse, the catalogue constitutes a pragmatic, emotional, cognitive object: it informs, arouses feelings, prompts action. The corpus investigated here contains five catalogues, a limited though representative sample, capable of bringing to the surface the underlying forms, that is, the constant elements which, below the mutable veneer of the single catalogues, appear again and again. Recourse to analytical semiotic tools (Greimas' canonical scheme, in particular) and to socio-semiotic theories, permits one to find traces in the texts examined of their profound narrativity. The purpose of this paper is to trace the pathway of meaning from the depths to the surface of the text and bring to light the strategies typical of tourist discourse used to build images of holiday destinations which make them desirable, therefore worth buying

Evidential devices in english medical journals

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate some of the evidential markers used in a range of specialized medical journals, a genre where reference to evidence is of fundamental importance. Writers of this kind of literature need to substantiate their statements by providing some kind of evidence, specifying how they obtained the information conveyed. Therefore, besides that of the author, other voices are incorporated into the text not only to testify to awareness of previous works but mainly to “provide justification for arguments and demonstrate the novelty of one’s position” (Hyland 1999: 342). As a result, evidentiality is a powerful means for bestowing trustworthiness on a text and creating a reliable image of the author

The verbal discourse of tourist brochures

The aim of this article, which is part of a broader project on tourism promotion still underway, is to investigate the role of language in tourist promotion and the ways brochures convey meaning. In particular the focus will be on the descriptive sections of tourist brochures. Fundamental to such an investigation is the belief that, despite the contemporary emphasis on the visual aspects of promotion, the written text performs a key function in the decision-making process which draws people to a tourist destination. Barthes stated that the function of the linguistic message was to “anchor” the spectrum of possible meanings, by selecting some interpretations and securing the intended meaning. The linguistic level “fixes the floating chain of signifieds in such a way as to counter the terror of uncertain signs” (Barthes 1964: 37). Very rarely does the language speak through pictures alone. As Dann puts it “where photographs are featured, almost without exception they appear in tandem with a verbal message” (Dann 1996: 188). Even though in most tourist brochures the emphasis is mainly iconographic, the verbal text plays an important part in the promotion of a tourist product

L’identità dei luoghi. Logos, ethos e pathos nella narrazione turistica

Il testo esamina come si costruisce l’identità turistica di un luogo. All’identità generica bisogna aggiungere un’ampia serie di atti discorsivi che contribuiscono a crearla. I luoghi sono il prodotto di discorsi tratti dalla letteratura, dal giornalismo, dal cinema o dalla televisione, oltre che dall’ambito specifico del turismo. Da questo deriva che la promozione del territorio passa attraverso una gran quantità di strutture narrative che strategicamente ne traducono in racconto il valore intrinseco. Dunque il valore di un territorio è fondato su tutta una serie di espressioni lessicali che fanno leva sul sentimento e fanno pregustare al lettore un assaggio delle emozioni che il viaggio che stanno preparandosi a compiere potrà fornirgli.The aim of this chapter is to discuss how the tourist identity of a holiday location is constructed. In addition to its general identity, a broad range of discursive acts used to build it up need to be taken into account. Places are the product of discourses drawn from literature, journalism, cinema or television as well as from the specific sphere of tourism itself. This involves presenting the places to be promoted within various kinds of narrative structures and translating their inherent or strategically attributed values into narration. The meaning of a place is based on typical narrative devices and frames and the value of the site and therefore of its commercial appeal are built primarily on the pathemization of the story. Hence, a number of pathemizing lexical items are used to delineate the identity of the place and provide the reader with a foretaste of the emotions that the envisaged journey can provide