"So you're saying": the interrogation of Jordan Peterson

[EN] In this article, I analyse the infamous Cathy Newman interview with Jordan Peterson on the 16th of January 2018 and subsequent viewer comments on Channel 4's YouTube channel. My first hypothesis is that Newman's frequent attribution of statements to Peterson using the now notorious "so you are saying" gambit (YSG) is what triggered outrage among Peterson's followers, which, in turn, generated media interest. My second hypothesis is that the interview is best understood as a series of Face threats by Newman on Peterson using the YSG. To ascertain if my hypotheses are true, I performed corpus linguistic analyses on the interview and comments to provide objective descriptions of both.  Episodes in which the YSG were used were identified and analysed using Goffman's (1967) Facework approach. My analysis shows that the YSG was indeed a salient feature of the interviewer's discourse and was used to attack the interviewee's Face.Pennock-Speck, B. (2021). "So you're saying": the interrogation of Jordan Peterson. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. 16(1):161-173. https://doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2021.14618OJS161173161Beattie, G. W. (1982). "Turn-taking and interruptions in political interviews-Margaret Thatcher and Jim Callaghan compared and contrasted." Semiotica, 39,93-114. https://doi.org/10.1515/semi.1982.39.1-2.93Brown, P. & Levinson, S. C. (1987) Politeness: Some Universals in Language Usage. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511813085Bousefield, D. E. (2008) Impoliteness in Interaction. Amsterdam: John Benjamins Publishing.Bull, P. (2012) "Watch dogs or guard dogs? Adversarial discourse in political journalism." In L N. Berlin & A. Fetzer (eds.) Dialogue in Politics. John Benjamins Publishing Company, 69-87. https://doi.org/10.1075/ds.18.07bulBull, P. (2019) "The construction of political journalism: A microanalytic approach." Discourse, Context & Media, 27, 7-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2018.02.004Bull, P. E. & Elliot, J. (1998) Level of threat: A means of assessing interviewer toughness and neutrality." Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 17/2, 220-244. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X980172005Bull, P. E. & Fetzer (2010) Face, facework and political discourse." Revue Internationale de Psychologie Sociale, 2/3, 155-185.Bull, P. E., Elliott, J., Palmer, D., & Walker, L. (1996). "Why politicians are three-faced: The face model of political interviews." British Journal of Social Psychology, 35, 267-284. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2044-8309.1996.tb01097.xClayman, S. E. (1988) "Displaying neutrality in television news interviews." Social Problems, 35/4, 474-492. https://doi.org/10.2307/800598Clayman, S. E. & Heritage, J. (2002) The News Interview. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511613623Craig, R. T., Tracy, K. & Spisak, F. (1986) "The discourse of requests: Assessment of a politeness approach." Human Communication Research, 12/4, 437-468. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2958.1986.tb00087.xCulpeper, J. (1996) "Towards an anatomy of impoliteness." Journal of Pragmatics, 25, 349-367. https://doi.org/10.1016/0378-2166(95)00014-3Culpeper, J. (2005) "Impoliteness and entertainment in the television quiz show: The Weakest Link." Journal of Politeness Research: Language, Behaviour, Culture, 1, 35-72. https://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.35Culpeper, J. (2011) Impoliteness: Using Language to Cause Offence. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Culpeper, J. Bousfield, D. E. & Wichmann, A. (2003) "Impoliteness revisited: With special reference to dynamic and prosodic aspects." Journal of Pragmatics, 35/10-11: 1545-1579. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(02)00118-2Day, R. (1989) Grand Inquisitor: Memoirs. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd.Eelen, G. (2001) A Critique of Politeness Theories. Manchester: St. Jerome's Press.Elliott, J., & Bull, P. E. (1996) "A question of threat: Face threats in questions posed during televised political interviews." Journal of Community and Applied Social Psychology, 6, 49-72. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-1298(199602)6:13.0.CO;2-HGoffman, E. (1955) "On Face-work. An analysis of ritual elements in social interaction." Psychiatry: Journal for the Study of Interpersonal Processes, 18/3, 213-31. https://doi.org/10.1080/00332747.1955.11023008Goffman, E. (1956) "The nature of deference and demeanor." American Anthropologist, 58, 473-502. https://doi.org/10.1525/aa.1956.58.3.02a00070Goffman, E. (1967) Interaction Ritual: Essays on Face to Face Behaviour. New York: Garden City.Greatbatch, D. (1998) Conversation analysis: neutralism in British news interviews. In: Bell, A. & P. Garrett (eds.) Approaches to Media Discourse. Blackwell, Oxford. Harris, 63-185.Greaves, C. & Warren, M. (2010) What can a corpus tell us about multi-word units? In: O'Keefe, A. & M. McCarthy (eds.) The Routledge Handbook of Corpus Linguistics. London and New York: Routledge, 212-226. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203856949-16Harris, S. (1986). "Interviewers' questions in broadcast interviews." In: Wilson, J. & B. K. Crow (eds.) Belfast Working Papers in Language and Linguistics, Vol. 8. Jordanstown: University of Ulster, 50-85.Heritage, J. (1985) "Analyzing news interviews: aspects of the production of talk for an overhearing audience." In T. A. van Dijk (ed.) Handbook of Discourse Analysis. London: Academic Press, 95-117.Heritage, J. & Greatbatch, D. (1991). "On the institutional character of institutional talk: the case of news interviews." In: Boden, D. & D. H. Zimmerman (eds.) Talk and Social Structure: Studies in Ethnomethodology and Conversation Analysis. Cambridge: Polity Press, pp. 93-137.Holmes, J. & Schnurr, S. (2005). "Politeness, Humor and Gender in the Workplace: Negotiating Norms and Identifying Contestation." Journal of Politeness Research, 1/1, 121-49. https://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.121Jucker, A. (1986) News Interviews: A Pragmalinguistic Analysis. Amsterdam: Gieben. https://doi.org/10.1075/pb.vii.4Leech, G. 1983. Principles of Pragmatics. London: Longman.Lloyd, J. (2004) What the media are doing to our politics. London: Constable and Robinson.Locher, M. A. & Watts, R. J. (2005) "Politeness Theory and Relational Work." Journal of Politeness Research, 1/1, 9-33. https://doi.org/10.1515/jplr.2005.1.1.9Lynskey, D. (2018). "How dangerous is Jordan B Peterson, the rightwing professor who 'hit a hornet's nest'?" The Guardian, 18th February.Penman, R. (1990) "Facework and Politeness: Multiple Goals in Courtroom Discourse." Journal of Language and Social Psychology, 9/1, 15-38. https://doi.org/10.1177/0261927X9091002Rendle-Short, J. (2007) "Neutralism and adversarial challenges in the political news interview." Discourse & Communication, 1/4, 387-406. https://doi.org/10.1177/1750481307082205Sharman, J. & Pasha-Robinson, L (2018) "Cathy Newman: Channel 4 calls in security experts following 'vicious abuse' over Jordan Peterson interview." The Independent. 20th January.Spencer-Oatey, H. (2007) "Theories of identity and the analysis of face." Journal of Pragmatics, 39: 639-56. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2006.12.004Tolson, A. (2012) "'You'll need a miracle to win this election' (J. Paxman2005): Interviewer assertiveness in UK general elections 1983-2010." Discourse, Context & Media, 1, 45-53. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dcm.2012.05.003Watts, R. J. (2003) Politeness. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press

The spoken core of British English: a diachronic analysis based on the BNC

This research takes as its starting point a frequency analysis of the demographicspoken subcorpus of the British National Corpus in order to focus on two aspects of the evolution of spoken core vocabulary in British English. The first is the impact on the core of contact with other languages and, the second, the role of lexical innovation and/or replacement in the history of this core. Our analysis, which, to a certain extent, follows up on that carried out in Fuster (2007) questions the hypothesis that the spoken core is immune to foreign influence or that it is highly resistant to [email protected]; [email protected]

Relatos digitales un género de expresión personal mediatizada: introducción

This article provides a critical review of some of the most relevant studies on digital storytelling and proposes a genre typology that allows an initial classification of digital storytelling into two main types: educational and social. Digital storytelling is a multimodal emergent genre characterised by its versatility and flexibility which has resulted in a series of subgenres. However, the main premise here is that differentiating between social and educational– although one does not exclude the other– and bearing in mind that most digital stories may lie at the intersection of both, is the most useful way to start labeling the massive production of digital stories available nowadays on the Internet. The articles included in this number are mostly educational (Ramírez-Verdugo & Sotomayor Grande, and Reyes, Pich & García, Londoño-Monroy) but they all include some traces of the social type. Thus, Bou-Franch is an example of how students interpret certain events that had social impact and that are part of history while Westman’s article involves the creation of communities of practice among those who share the same interests. Finally, Herreros-Navarro, although educational in essence, describes a social act in which students intentionally choose a way to present their own identity to society using digital storytelling.Este artículo ofrece una revisión crítica de algunos de los estudios más relevantes sobre relato digital y propone una tipología de género que permite una clasificación inicial en dos grandes tipos: educativo y social. El argumento principal es que la diferenciación entre lo social y educativo, aunque uno no excluye al otro, ofrece la posibilidad de clasificar la producción masiva de relatos digitales disponibles hoy en día en Internet. Los artículos incluidos en este número son, en su mayoría, educativos (Ramírez-Verdugo y Grande Sotomayor, y Reyes, Pich & García, Londoño-Godoy), aunque en todos ellos todos ellos incluyen algunos rasgo de lo social. Bou-Franch nos habla de las estrategias utilizadas por los estudiantes en la interpretación de acontecimientos históricos que tuvieron impacto social; mientras que el artículo de Westman conlleva la creación de comunidades de práctica entre aquellos que comparten los mismos intereses. Por último, para Herreros Navarro el relato digital es un acto social en el que los estudiantes deben decidir como quieren que la sociedad les vea ya que describen y exploran su “o” a través del relato digital

Telecollaboration in a secondary school context: Negotiation of meaning in English as a lingua franca/Spanish tandem interactions

En este artículo presentamos nuestra investigación sobre la negociación de significado en dos interacciones con los mismos estudiantes españoles y alemanes de 16 años de edad en colegios de España y Alemania respectivamente. Las interacciones incluyen dos constelaciones de idioma, es decir, inglés como lengua franca y un tándem español. Nuestra investigación se llevó a cabo dentro del proyecto Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition project (TILA). Nuestro análisis cualitativo de la interacción demuestra que la telecolaboración ofrece muchas oportunidades para la comprensión y el aprendizaje. No hemos encontrado pruebas concluyentes para apoyar la hipótesis de que la negociación de significado es muy diferente en los dos tipos de constelaciones de idioma.En aquest article presentem la nostra investigació sobre la negociació de significat en dos interaccions amb els mateixos estudiants espanyols i alemanys de 16 anys d'edat en col·legis d'Espanya i Alemanya respectivament. Les interaccions inclouen dos constel·lacions d'idioma, és a dir, anglés com a llengua franca i un tàndem espanyol. La nostra investigació es va dur a terme dins del projecte Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition project (TILA). La nostra anàlisi qualitativa de la interacció demostra que la telecol.aboració ofereix moltes oportunitats per a la comprensió i l'aprenentatge. No hem trobat proves concloents per a recolzar la hipòtesi de que la negociació de significat és molt diferent en els dos tipus de constel·lacions d'idioma.In this article we present our research into the negotiation of meaning in two interactions involving the same 16-year old Spanish and German students based in schools in Spain and German respectively. The interactions involved two language constellations, that is, English as a lingua franca and a Spanish tandem. Our research was carried out within the Telecollaboration for Intercultural Language Acquisition project (TILA). Our qualitative analysis of the interactions demonstrates that telecollaboration offers many opportunities for comprehension and learning. We have not found conclusive evidence to support the hypothesis that negotiation of meaning is very different in the two types of language constellation

The acquisition of written competence through lexical chains: comparison between native and non-native speakers

Este estudio analiza un corpus de composiciones escritas en inglés por aprendices españoles y nativos ingleses y estudio la adquisición de la competencia escrita a través del uso de las cadenas léxicas.This work analyzes a corpus of written essays by native and non-native learners of English and studies the acquisition of written competence in English through the use of lexical chains

A qualitative meta-analysis of intercultural research into audio-visual synchronous communication between language learners

[EN] In this article we conduct a meta-analysis (Timulak, 2009) of qualitative studies into computer-mediated, synchronic, oral interactions between language learners from different countries focusing primarily on Intercultural Communicative Competences (ICCs) (Byram, 1997). To find studies that met our criteria, keyword searches were conducted in Google Scholar and in the main CMC journals. To filter the search results, we used AntConc 4.4, and close readings of the studies found. We ascertained that only three met our criteria (O Dowd, 2006; Akiyama, 2017; Liaw, 2019). Our analysis shows that the ICCs identified in these articles are also found intraculturally. Moreover, when the language competence of the participants is similar, we argue that the communication between NS and NNS is practically indistinguishable from NS-to-NS communication. These results seem to call into question the validity of ICCs. We conclude therefore that language teaching should focus on improving communicative and pragmatic competence in the target language.[ES] En este artículo realizamos un meta-análisis (Timulak, 2009) de estudios cualitativos sobre interacciones orales sincrónicas mediadas por ordenador entre estudiantes de idiomas de diferentes países, centrándonos principalmente en las competencias comunicativas interculturales (CCI) (Byram, 1997). Para encontrar estudios que cumplieran nuestros criterios, se realizaron búsquedas por palabras clave en Google Scholar y en las principales revistas de CMC. Para filtrar los resultados de la búsqueda, utilizamos AntConc 4.4 y realizamos una lectura detallada de los estudios encontrados. Comprobamos que solo tres cumplían nuestros criterios (O Dowd, 2006; Akiyama, 2017; Liaw, 2019). Nuestro análisis muestra que las ICC identificadas en estos artículos también se encuentran intraculturalmente. Además, cuando la competencia lingüística de los participantes es similar, sostenemos que la comunicación entre NS y NNS es prácticamente indistinguible de la comunicación entre NS. Estos resultados parecen poner en entredicho la validez de los CCI. Concluimos, por tanto, que la enseñanza de idiomas debería centrarse en mejorar la competencia comunicativa y pragmática en la lengua meta.Clavel-Arroitia, B.; Pennock-Speck, B. (2023). A qualitative meta-analysis of intercultural research into audio-visual synchronous communication between language learners. Revista de Lingüística y Lenguas Aplicadas. 18:35-47. https://doi.org/10.4995/rlyla.2023.1747335471

Digital storytelling as a genre of mediatized self-representations: an introduction

This article provides a critical review of some of the most relevant studies on digital storytelling and proposes a genre typology that allows an initial classification of digital storytelling into two main types: educational and social. Digital storytelling is a multimodal emergent genre characterised by its versatility and flexibility which has resulted in a series of subgenres. However, the main premise here is that differentiating between social and educational– although one does not exclude the other– and bearing in mind that most digital stories may lie at the intersection of both, is the most useful way to start labeling the massive production of digital stories available nowadays on the Internet. The articles included in this number are mostly educational (Ramírez-Verdugo & Sotomayor Grande, and Reyes, Pich & García, Londoño-Monroy) but they all include some traces of the social type. Thus, Bou-Franch is an example of how students interpret certain events that had social impact and that are part of history while Westman’s article involves the creation of communities of practice among those who share the same interests. Finally, Herreros-Navarro, although educational in essence, describes a social act in which students intentionally choose a way to present their own identity to society using digital storytelling.This article provides a critical review of some of the most relevant studies on digital storytelling and proposes a genre typology that allows an initial classification of digital storytelling into two main types: educational and social. Digital storytelling is a multimodal emergent genre characterised by its versatility and flexibility which has resulted in a series of subgenres. However, the main premise here is that differentiating between social and educational- although one does not exclude the other- and bearing in mind that most digital stories may lie at the intersection of both, is the most useful way to start labeling the massive production of digital stories available nowadays on the Internet. The articles included in this number are mostly educational (Ramírez-Verdugo & Sotomayor Grande, and Reyes, Pich & García, Londoño-Monroy) but they all include some traces of the social type. Thus, Bou-Franch is an example of how students interpret certain events that had social impact and that are part of history while Westman's article involves the creation of communities of practice among those who share the same interests. Finally, Herreros-Navarro, although educational in essence, describes a social act in which students intentionally choose a way to present their own identity to society using digital storytelling

Teachers' Perspectives on telecollaboration in Secondary School Foreign Language Education

In recent years, telecollaboration has proved to be a useful tool in the acquisition of foreign languages and intercultural communicative skills (Belz 2003b; Clavel-Arroitia, Pennock-Speck 2015a, 2015b; Hewitt, Brett 2007; O'Dowd 2007; Su et al., 2005). This paper focuses on how prepared secondary-school teachers believe they are in order to successfully implement telecollaboration in the classroom. To gather information on their views we carried out an online survey of 179 secondary school foreign language teachers and a series of focus group interviews in the context of a European project, TeCoLa. The advantage of the double-pronged approach to data collection, quantitative and qualitative, is that it provides us with a more complete picture of teachers' needs