Discourses of marriage in same-sex marriage debates in the UK press 2011–2014

This paper interrogates media representations of same-sex marriage debates in the UK using a combination of corpus linguistics tools and close reading, and drawing on Queer Linguistics. Following related work by Baker (2004), Love and Baker (2015), and Bachmann (2011), we analyse a 1.3 million-word corpus of UK national newspaper texts compiled for the Discourses of Marriage Research Group. Our corpus stretches from September 2011 and the announcement of a government consultation on same-sex marriage, to April 2014 when the first same-sex marriages took place. Using a top-down approach we investigate the discourses drawn upon in same-sex marriage debates (as indexed by keywords and key semantic fields) and uncover the binary social categories used to normalise social structures and hold the same-sex marriage debate in place. We also consider which social actors are (not) given a voice and/or agency and discuss how (same-sex) marriage is constituted

Identity and naming practices in British marriage and civil partnerships

This article demonstrates the continued prevalence of traditional, heteronormative practices regarding marriage and naming practices in Britain, and also considers the complex choices made by same-sex couples who marry in relation to whether there are any benefits in changing their surname. The study draws on data from an online survey of 1,000 UK respondents, and reveals that it continues to be viewed as more ‘normal’ for a woman to take her husband’s surname in a heterosexual union than for her to make any other choice. Whilst other options (such as the woman retaining the surname given to her by her parents, for instance) are often considered in relation to heterosexual marriage, these continue to be seen as a deviation from the norm. We find that the role of tradition is critical to heterosexual women’s decisions over what to do with their surname, whether they follow the culturally expected route or consciously deviate from it. Same-sex couples are broadly perceived to have comparably more freedom than heterosexuals regarding their names, and here we analyse whether this is the case. Through qualitative critical analysis of the discursive responses of those completing our survey, and some quantitative discussion of the data, we demonstrate that heteronormative assumptions about a woman’s role in a heterosexual relationship have continued salience and that this leads to a conscious and often difficult negotiation of her own identity as both an individual and a wife

Implicit homophobic argument structure: equal-marriage discourse in The Moral Maze

This article analyses the linguistic and discursive elements which contribute to the production of implicit homophobia. Explicit homophobia has been well documented and strategies for countering discriminatory language have been developed (Baker, 2014; Leap, 2012). However, our interest here is in documenting implicit homophobia, where homophobic beliefs are only hinted at, are disassociated from the speaker, or are embedded within discursive and argument structures. We decided to analyse the debate in the media around the introduction of equal or same­-sex marriage legislation in the UK. We focused our analysis on a series of radio programmes on BBC Radio 4, The Moral Maze, (2011­12) where the issue of same­-sex marriage was debated with a team of panelists and invited guests from a range of different organisations. Different perspectives on same sex marriage were discussed, in a seemingly objective and dispassionate way, where the interactants distanced themselves from homophobic beliefs and yet, implicitly subscribed to implicit homophobia. We used an analysis drawing on argumentation structure (Fairclough and Fairclough, 2012) and through focusing on stance, recontextualisation, imaginaries, and metaphor, we developed an analysis which made the way that implicit homophobia works more visible. In this way, we hope to foreground implicit homophobia, and develop a linguistic and discursive `toolkit’ which will enable it to be challenged and countered

Rotating Hele-Shaw cells with ferrofluids

We investigate the flow of two immiscible, viscous fluids in a rotating Hele-Shaw cell, when one of the fluids is a ferrofluid and an external magnetic field is applied. The interplay between centrifugal and magnetic forces in determining the instability of the fluid-fluid interface is analyzed. The linear stability analysis of the problem shows that a non-uniform, azimuthal magnetic field, applied tangential to the cell, tends to stabilize the interface. We verify that maximum growth rate selection of initial patterns is influenced by the applied field, which tends to decrease the number of interface ripples. We contrast these results with the situation in which a uniform magnetic field is applied normally to the plane defined by the rotating Hele-Shaw cell.Comment: 12 pages, 3 ps figures, RevTe

Opposition as victimhood in newspaper debates about same-sex marriage

In this paper, we take a queer linguistics approach to the analysis of data from British newspaper articles which discuss the introduction of same-sex marriage. Drawing on methods from CDA and corpus linguistics, we focus on the construction of agency in relation to the government extending marriage to same-sex couples, and those resisting this. We show that opponents to same-sex marriage are represented and represent themselves as victims whose moral values, traditions, and civil liberties are being threatened by the state. Specifically, we argue that victimhood is invoked in a way that both enables and permits discourses of implicit homophobia

Acute Effects of Nicotine Amplify Accumbal Neural Responses during Nicotine-Taking Behavior and Nicotine-Paired Environmental Cues

Nicotine self-administration (SA) is maintained by several variables, including the reinforcing properties of nicotine-paired cues and the nicotine-induced amplification of those cue properties. The nucleus accumbens (NAc) is implicated in mediating the influence of these variables, though the underlying neurophysiological mechanisms are not yet understood. In the present study, Long-Evans rats were trained to self-administer nicotine. During SA sessions each press of a lever was followed by an intravenous infusion of nicotine (30 µg/kg) paired with a combined light-tone cue. Extracellular recordings of single-neuron activity showed that 20% of neurons exhibited a phasic change in firing during the nicotine-directed operant, the light-tone cue, or both. The phasic change in firing for 98% of neurons was an increase. Sixty-two percent of NAc neurons additionally or alternatively showed a sustained decrease in average firing during the SA session relative to a presession baseline period. These session decreases in firing were significantly less prevalent in a group of neurons that were activated during either the operant or the cue than in a group of neurons that were nonresponsive during those events (referred to as task-activated and task-nonactivated neurons, respectively). Moreover, the session decrease in firing was dose-dependent for only the task-nonactivated neurons. The data of the present investigation provide supportive correlational evidence for two hypotheses: (1) excitatory neurophysiological mechanisms mediate the NAc role in cue-maintenance of nicotine SA, and (2) a differential nicotine-induced inhibition of task-activated and task-nonactivated neurons mediates the NAc role in nicotine-induced amplification of cue effects on nicotine SA

Physical mapping integrated with syntenic analysis to characterize the gene space of the long arm of wheat chromosome 1A

Background: Bread wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) is one of the most important crops worldwide and its production faces pressing challenges, the solution of which demands genome information. However, the large, highly repetitive hexaploid wheat genome has been considered intractable to standard sequencing approaches. Therefore the International Wheat Genome Sequencing Consortium (IWGSC) proposes to map and sequence the genome on a chromosome-by-chromosome basis. Methodology/Principal Findings: We have constructed a physical map of the long arm of bread wheat chromosome 1A using chromosome-specific BAC libraries by High Information Content Fingerprinting (HICF). Two alternative methods (FPC and LTC) were used to assemble the fingerprints into a high-resolution physical map of the chromosome arm. A total of 365 molecular markers were added to the map, in addition to 1122 putative unique transcripts that were identified by microarray hybridization. The final map consists of 1180 FPC based or 583 LTC based contigs. Conclusions/Significance: The physical map presented here marks an important step forward in mapping of hexaploid bread wheat. The map is orders of magnitude more detailed than previously available maps of this chromosome, and the assignment of over a thousand putative expressed gene sequences to specific map locations will greatly assist future functional studies. This map will be an essential tool for future sequencing of and positional cloning within chromosome 1A