A comparative study of keywords in English-language corporate press releases from european companies: insights into discursive practices

[EN] This study provides insights into discursive practices through a comparative study of keywords in English-language press releases from British, Spanish and Polish energy companies. Even though corporate press releases have been extensively researched, there is a lack of cross-cultural and corpus-based studies in this fi eld. In the present research three corpora of approximately 120,000 words each, containing English-language press releases from British, Spanish and Polish energy companies, were used. The keywords were identifi ed with the Wmatrix tool (Rayson 2009) and the reference corpus consisted of business periodical articles. The analysis of corpus keywords usually provides insights that would be diffi cult to gain by means of manual analyses of texts or qualitative approaches. The results obtained in this study show notable diff erences between the corpora with regard to the keywords identifi ed. The use of more general meaning keywords by British companies or more technical keywords by Polish companies suggest that lexical choices might be indicative of diff erent discursive practices used to reach stakeholders and the general public.Skorczynska Sznajder, HT. (2016). A comparative study of keywords in English-language corporate press releases from european companies: insights into discursive practices. Discourse and Interaction (Online). 9(1):49-64. https://doi.org/10.5817/DI2016-1-49S496491Bell, A. (1991) The Language of News Media. Oxford: Blackwell.Bhatia, V. (1993) Analysing Genre: Language Use in Professional Settings. Harlow:Longman.Bhatia, V. (2004) Worlds of Written Discourse. London: Continuum.Boxer, D. (2002) ‘Discourse issues in cross-cultural pragmatics.’ Annual Review ofApplied Linguistics 22, 150-167. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0267190502000089Catenaccio, P. (2007) ‘Constructing identities in the fashion industry: Building brand andcustomer image through press releases.’ In: Garzone, G. and Ilie, C. (eds) The Use ofEnglish in Institutional and Business Settings. An Intercultural Perspective. Berlin:Peter Lang. 31-56.Catenaccio, P. (2008) ‘Press releases as a hybrid genre: Addressing the informative/promotional conundrum.’ Pragmatics 18(1), 9-31. https://doi.org/10.1075/prag.18.1.02catConnor, U., Nagelhout, E. and Rozycki, W. V. (eds) (2008) Contrastive Rhetoric. Reachingto Intercultural Rhetoric. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins.Handford, M. (2012) ‘Professional communication and corpus linguistics.’ In: Hyland,K., Huat, C. M. and Handford, M. (eds) Corpus Applications in Applied Linguistics.London and New York: Continuum International Publishing Group. 13-29.Hofstede, G. and Hofstede, G. J. (2005) Cultures and Organizations: The Software of the Mind. 2nd ed. New York: McGraw Hill.Hofstede, G., Hofstede, G. J. and Minkov, M. (2010) Cultures and Organizations:Software of the Mind: Intercultural Cooperation and its Importance for Survival. 3rded. New York: McGraw-Hill.Jacobs, G. (1998) ‘Projected discourse: An analysis of receiver roles in press releases.’Text 18, 505-523. https://doi.org/10.1515/text.1.1998.18.4.505Jacobs, G. (1999a) Preformulating the News: An Analysis of the Metapragmatics of PressReleases. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.Jacobs, G. (1999b) ‘Self-reference in press releases.’ Journal of Pragmatics 31, 219-242. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0378-2166(98)00077-0Jacobs, G. (2014) ‘Press releases.’ In: Schneider, K. and Barron, A. (eds) Pragmatics ofDiscourse. Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter. 583-599.Kaasa, A., Vadi, M. and Varblane, U. (2013) ‘European Social Survey as a source of newcultural dimensions estimates for regions.’ International Journal of Cross CulturalManagement 13(2), 137-157. https://doi.org/10.1177/1470595813485379Kolman, L., Noorderhaven, N. G., Hofestede, G. and Dienes, E. (2003) ‘Cross-culturaldifferences in Central Europe.’ Journal of Managerial Psychology 18(1), 76-88. https://doi.org/10.1108/02683940310459600Lassen, I. (2006) ‘Is the press release a genre? A study of form and content.’ DiscourseStudies 8(4), 503-530. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445606061875McLaren-Hankin, Y. (2008) ‘“We expect to report on significant progress in our productpipeline in the coming year”: Hedging forward-looking statements in corporate pressreleases.’ Discourse Studies 10, 635-654. https://doi.org/10.1177/1461445608094216McLaren, Y. and Gurău, C. (2005) ‘Characterising the genre of the corporate pressrelease.’ LSP & Professional Communication 4(1), 10-30.Pander Maat, H. (2007) ‘How promotional language in press releases is dealt with byjournalists.’ Journal of Business Communication 44(1), 59-95. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021943606295780Rayson, P. (2008) ‘From key words to key semantic domains.’ International Journal ofCorpus Linguistics 13(4), 519-549. https://doi.org/10.1075/ijcl.13.4.06rayRayson, P. (2009) Wmatrix: A web-based corpus processing environment, ComputingDepartment, Lancaster University [online]. http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/wmatrix/15 January 2015.Sagiv, L. and Schwartz, S. H. (2007) ‘Cultural values in organisations: Insights forEurope.’ European Journal of International Management 1(3), 176-190.Scott, M. (1997) ‘PC analysis of key words – and key key words.’ System 25(2), 233-245.Scott, M. and Tribble, C. (2006) Textual Patterns: Key Words and Corpus Analysis inLanguage Education. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0346-251X(97)00011-0Strobbe, I. and Jacobs, G. (2005). E-releases: A view from linguistic pragmatics. PublicRelations Review, 31(2), 289-291. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pubrev.2005.02.009Stubbs, M. (2010) ‘Three concepts of keywords.’ In: Bondi, M. and Scott, M. (eds)Keyness in Texts. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. 21-42.Swales, J. M. (1990) Genre Analysis. English in Academic and Research Settings.Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.United Nations Statistics Division (2013) ‘Composition of macrogeographical(continental) regions.’ Standard Country and Area Codes Classifi cations (revised 31October 2013). From unstats.un.org. Online document 8 January 2015.Wierzbicka, A. (2003) Cross-Cultural Pragmatics. The Semantics of Human Interaction.Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.Yates, J. and Orlikowski, W. J. (1992) ‘Genres of organizational communication:A structurational approach to studying communication and media.’ Academy ofManagement Review 17(2), 299-326

"We are prepared to play our part...": A case study of the use of first-person references in e-releases from two oil companies

[EN] This study looks into the meta-pragmatics of e-releases by providing corpus-based data on variations in the use of first-person references in e-releases from two oil companies: BP and Repsol. Previous research on corporate press releases had approached this particular feature (Jacobs, 1999a, 1999b), but no further attempts have been made to look into their usage in press releases published on corporate websites of different organizations. Two corpora of nearly 100,000 tokens have been examined for first-person pronouns and determiners in order to identify their frequencies and their referents. The results reveal an interplay of multiple first-person voices that enhance the dialogic nature of e-releases and possibly their persuasive effectiveness. The variations detected show that BP uses first-person references far more frequently than Repsol, yet lower frequencies seem not to correlate with higher frequencies of third-person references. The range of referents identified is also broader for BP. The differences suggest distinct approaches to exploiting the communicative potential served by the use of first-person references, and thus different communication strategies applied by companies operating on a global scale but within the same industry.I would like to thank the Department of Applied Linguistics, Universitat Politecnica de Valencia for the travel grant to present preliminary results of this research at DICOEN 2017. I would also like to thank Alex Lostado from the Erasmus University of Rotterdam for his help with the statistical treatment of the corpus data.Skorczynska Sznajder, HT. (2020). "We are prepared to play our part...": A case study of the use of first-person references in e-releases from two oil companies. Journal of Pragmatics. 155:1-14. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2019.09.013S114155Catenaccio, P. (2008). Press releases as a hybrid genre. The discourse of news management, 18(1), 9-31. doi:10.1075/prag.18.1.02catFasulo, A., & Zucchermaglio, C. (2002). My selves and I: identity markers in work meeting talk. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(9), 1119-1144. doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(01)00051-0Fetzer, A., & Bull, P. (2012). Doing leadership in political speech: Semantic processes and pragmatic inferences. Discourse & Society, 23(2), 127-144. doi:10.1177/0957926511431510Goffman, E. (1976). Replies and responses. Language in Society, 5(3), 257-313. doi:10.1017/s0047404500007156Harwood, N. (2005). ‘Nowhere has anyone attempted … In this article I aim to do just that’. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(8), 1207-1231. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2005.01.012Harwood, N. (2005). ‘We Do Not Seem to Have a Theory … The Theory I Present Here Attempts to Fill This Gap’: Inclusive and Exclusive Pronouns in Academic Writing. Applied Linguistics, 26(3), 343-375. doi:10.1093/applin/ami012Harwood, N. (2006). (In)appropriate Personal Pronoun Use in Political Science. Written Communication, 23(4), 424-450. doi:10.1177/0741088306293921Harwood, N. (2007). Political scientists on the functions of personal pronouns in their writing: An interview-based study of ‘I’ and ‘we’. Text & Talk, 27(1). doi:10.1515/text.2007.002Hyland, K. (2001). Humble servants of the discipline? Self-mention in research articles. English for Specific Purposes, 20(3), 207-226. doi:10.1016/s0889-4906(00)00012-0Hyland, K. (2002). Authority and invisibility. Journal of Pragmatics, 34(8), 1091-1112. doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(02)00035-8JACOBS, G. (1998). Projected discourse: An analysis of receiver roles in press releases. Text - Interdisciplinary Journal for the Study of Discourse, 18(4). doi:10.1515/text.1.1998.18.4.505Jacobs, G. (1999). Self-reference in press releases. Journal of Pragmatics, 31(2), 219-242. doi:10.1016/s0378-2166(98)00077-0Kranert, M. (2017). ‘Today I offer you, and we offer the country a new vision’: The strategic use of first person pronouns in party conference speeches of the Third Way. Discourse & Society, 28(2), 182-203. doi:10.1177/0957926516685463Lassen, I. (2006). Is the press release a genre? A study of form and content. Discourse Studies, 8(4), 503-530. doi:10.1177/1461445606061875McLaren-Hankin, Y. (2008). `We expect to report on significant progress in our product pipeline in the coming year’: hedging forward-looking statements in corporate press releases. Discourse Studies, 10(5), 635-654. doi:10.1177/1461445608094216Maat, H. P. (2007). How Promotional Language in Press Releases Is Dealt With by Journalists: Genre Mixing or Genre Conflict? Journal of Business Communication, 44(1), 59-95. doi:10.1177/0021943606295780Pennycook, A. (1994). The politics of pronouns. ELT Journal, 48(2), 173-178. doi:10.1093/elt/48.2.173Serrano, M. J., & Aijón Oliva, M. Á. (2010). La posición variable del sujeto pronominal en relación con la cortesía interactiva. Pragmalinguistica, (18), 170-204. doi:10.25267/pragmalinguistica.2010.i18.08Skorczynska Sznajder, H. T. (2016). A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF KEYWORDS IN ENGLISH-LANGUAGE CORPORATE PRESS RELEASES FROM EUROPEAN COMPANIES: INSIGHTS INTO DISCURSIVE PRACTICES. Discourse and Interaction, 9(1), 49. doi:10.5817/di2016-1-49Sleurs, K., & Jacobs, G. (2005). Beyond preformulation: an ethnographic perspective on press releases. Journal of Pragmatics, 37(8), 1251-1273. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2004.11.007Stirling, L., & Manderson, L. (2011). About you: Empathy, objectivity and authority. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(6), 1581-1602. doi:10.1016/j.pragma.2010.12.002Strobbe, I., & Jacobs, G. (2005). E-releases: A view from linguistic pragmatics. Public Relations Review, 31(2), 289-291. doi:10.1016/j.pubrev.2005.02.009Vaughan, E., & Clancy, B. (2013). Small Corpora and Pragmatics. Yearbook of Corpus Linguistics and Pragmatics, 53-73. doi:10.1007/978-94-007-6250-3_4Whitley, M. S. (1978). Person and Number in the Use of We, You, and They. American Speech, 53(1), 18. doi:10.2307/45533

Evidence for Referential Expectation in Four-Month-Old Infants

Infants’ sensitivity to selectively attend human speech and to process it in a unique way has been widely reported in the past. However, in order to successfully acquire language, one should also understand that speech is a referential symbol system, and that words can stand for other entities in the world. While there has been some evidence showing that young infants can make inferences about the communicative intentions of a speaker, whether they would also appreciate the direct relation between a specific word and its referent, is still unknown. In the present study we tested four-month-old infants to see whether they would expect to find a referent when they hear human speech. Our results showed that compared to other auditory stimulus or to silence, when infants were listening to speech they were more prepared to find some visual referents of the words, but only if the speaker also provided additional referential cues. Thus, our study is the first to report evidence that infants at a very young age already appreciate the symbolic nature of language and that they understand the referential relation between auditory words and physical objects, even if they do not have yet any knowledge about the meanings of words

Can you see what i am talking about? Human speech triggers referential expectation in four-month-old infants

Infants’ sensitivity to selectively attend to human speech and to process it in a unique way has been widely reported in the past. However, in order to successfully acquire language, one should also understand that speech is a referential, and that words can stand for other entities in the world. While there has been some evidence showing that young infants can make inferences about the communicative intentions of a speaker, whether they would also appreciate the direct relationship between a specific word and its referent, is still unknown. In the present study we tested four-month-old infants to see whether they would expect to find a referent when they hear human speech. Our results showed that compared to other auditory stimuli or to silence, when infants were listening to speech they were more prepared to find some visual referents of the words, as signalled by their faster orienting towards the visual objects. Hence, our study is the first to report evidence that infants at a very young age already understand the referential relationship between auditory words and physical objects, thus show a precursor in appreciating the symbolic nature of language, even if they do not understand yet the meanings of words

Designing to Restory the Past: Storytelling for Empowerment through a Digital Archive

Storytelling is a frequently used approach to design. Stories and storytelling also have a role in mediating information and contributing to people\u27s understanding of the world around them. Previous research suggests that storytelling can be empowering to marginalized and diverse communities, such as Indigenous peoples, by offering a platform to voice their (hi)stories. In this paper, we present a research through design project in which we explore the design of the living archive. This is a web-based digital archive that encourages a user-based approach to restorying the past by focusing on storytelling for empowerment and involving members of Indigenous People, the Sami. We demonstrate how a digital archive can contribute to (re)storying the past in a manner that preserves Indigenous ways of knowing and ethical archiving of social memory. Through this archive, we provide the digital tools for the communities to take on the role to tell their truth and, in doing so, become central in the design and communication of their own stories. In short, design for storytelling to empower those who need a voice

The symptomatology of aneurysmal bone cyst : the value of diagnostic imaging

Background: An aneurysmal bone cyst (ABC) is a benign lesion occurring mainly in children. Generally it is found in the metaphyses of long bones and in flat bones. Osteolysis, bone expansion, thinning of the cortex, osseous septa and fluid levels belong to the typical imaging findings in ABC cases. The purpose of the study was to determine the value of imaging methods: plain x-ray films, US, CT and MRI for the diagnosis of aneurysmal bone cyst and to work out the diagnostic algorithm for an ABC suspected on plain radiograms. Material/Methods: The material consists of 72 patients (44 boys, 28 girls) aged 2-23 years (mean age 12 yrs) with bone lesions diagnosed as aneurysmal bone cysts on pathologic examination. In all patients, plain radiographs were performed, in 26 - sonography (US), in 41 - computed tomography (CT), in 8 - magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). All the examinations were analyzed according to own system of evaluation of typical presentation in the particular methods. The histopathological diagnosis was established after biopsy or surgery. Results: The aneurysmal bone cysts were most frequently located in the long bones of the lower limbs (43%), in the long bones of the upper limbs (26.4%) and in flat bones (25%). The localization was mainly in the bone methaphyses (56.6%). On pathological examination, primary ABC was diagnosed in 65.3% of cases, secondary ABC in 23.6%, ABC and concomitant osteitis in 7%, ABC and giant cell tumor in 2.7%, ABC and chondrosarcoma in 1.4%. The application of four methods resulted in 72.2% consistency between diagnostic imaging and pathological examination. In case of only one method used the consistency was 75% for MRI, 63% for CT, 55.4% for plain films and 50% for US. In 100% of misdiagnosed cases there were no septa within osteolytic lesions on plain films, whereas in 43.8% features of malignancy were found. In 53% of misdiagnosed cases no fluid levels were observed on CT and in 69% on US. Conclusions: 1. The diagnosis of aneurismal bone cyst based on plain radiography is possible in cases with typical radiological signs. 2. Application of other methods significantly increases the percentage of correct diagnoses. 3. Lack of fluid levels does not exclude the diagnosis of ABC. 4. Imaging features of malignancy do not exclude the diagnosis of ABC

Un estudio interdisciplinar de intensificadores verbales en artículos de investigación de ingeniería, medicina y lingüística: Frecuencias y variaciones en el co-texto

[ES] Resumen El presente estudio analiza las variaciones de las frecuencias y las funciones pragmáticas de los marcadores metadiscursivos conocidos como intensificadores, y en particular de sus formas verbales. Se recopilaron tres corpus para este fin, que cubrían el campo de ingeniería, medicina y lingüística. Los corpus fueron anotados manualmente por un grupo de anotadores para identificar todos los marcadores discursivos, incluyendo los intensificadores. Un listado predeterminado de marcadores fue utilizado para la anotación. Dicho listado fue posteriormente completado durante el proceso de la anotación. La comparación de las frecuencias de los intensificadores verbales muestra claras diferencias entre los corpus, lo cual confirma estudios previos de este tipo. Sin embargo, el rango de verbos identificados fue muy similar indicando considerables coincidencias entre ellos. Asimismo, los tres verbos más frecuentes eran iguales en los corpus de ingeniería y medicina, pero diferentes en lingüística. Este estudio fue llevado a cabo dentro del proyecto de investigación financiado por el Ministerio de Economía, Industria y Competitividad del Gobierno de España (FFI2016-77941-P).[EN] The present study looks into the variations in the frequencies and pragmatic functions of the metadiscourse markers known as boosters, and in particular, with regard to their verb forms. Three corpora have been compiled to this end, covering the fields of Engineering, Medicine and Linguistics. The corpora were manually annotated for metadiscourse markers, boosters included, by a group of annotators. A predetermined list was used for annotation, but throughout the annotation process, the list was modified to better reflect the use of metadiscourse in the corpora. The raw count of the occurrences of verb boosters shows clear differences between the corpora, which in turn confirms previous studies of this type. However, the range of verbs identified was very similar, pointing to a large overlap among the three. The three top frequency verb boosters also showed a clear overlap for Engineering and Medicine, but revealed considerable differences with Linguistics. This study has been conducted within a research project financed by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry and Competitiveness (FFI2016-77941-P).Skorczynska Sznajder, HT.; Carrió-Pastor, ML. (2021). A cross-disciplinary study of verb boosters in research articles from Engineering, Medicine and Linguistics: Frequency and co-text variations. Revista Signos. Estudios de Lingüística (Online). 54(106):575-599. https://doi.org/10.4067/S0718-093420210002005755755995410

Wyzwania demograficzne dla systemów emerytalnych w Unii Europejskiej

The first part of the study characterizes the aging society in the EU countries, which leads, among others, to limiting the potential of the economic development and has negative effects from the point of view of public finance sustainability, and pension finances in particular. With falling incomes and rising pension expenditure, pension schemes in the EU find it increasingly difficult to guarantee adequate pensions. Due to this fact, at the European level, the co-operation in the area of pension security has been intensified. The remaining part of the paper presents a long-term plan of modernizing pension policy in the EU, which demonstrates the realization of the Method of Open Coordination (OMC) of pension schemes.Artykuł nie zawiera abstraktu w języku polskim

Stymulowanie oszczędności emerytalnych na przykładzie KiwiSaver

The mobilization of additional retirement savings is important from the point of view of demographic changes and the increase in pension expenditure in the future. The governments of many countries apply incentives for voluntary retirement saving schemes, mostly in the form of tax reliefs. Unfortunately, these incentives do not significantly increase the number of individuals who save and do not bring vital growth for the economy. What turns out to be more effective is supplemental premium to the contributions made by the members which provides a stronger impulse for additional saving rather than just traditional tax exemptions. The article was concerned with the analysis and evaluation of innovative solutions applied within the framework of KiwiSaver scheme in New Zealand, which consists in the combination of automatic enrolment to the savings program with a strong stimulus to stay within its in the form of the employer’s contributions as well as the subsidies from the state budget.Mobilizacja dodatkowych oszczędności emerytalnych jest ważna z punktu widzenia zmian demograficznych i wzrostu wydatków emerytalnych w przyszłości. Rządy większości krajów stosują zachęty do dobrowolnego oszczędzania na emeryturę, głównie w postaci ulg podatkowych. Niestety, zachęty te nie zwiększają zasadniczo liczby osób oszczędzających i nie przynoszą istotnego wzrostu nowych oszczędności w gospodarce. Znacznie bardziej efektywne okazują się dopłaty do składek oszczędzających, które dają mocniejszy impuls do dodatkowego oszczędzania niż tradycyjne zwolnienia podatkowe. Artykuł obejmuje analizę i ocenę nowatorskich rozwiązań stosowanych w ramach systemu KiwiSaver w Nowej Zelandii, które polegają na połączeniu automatycznego zapisu (automatic enrolment) do systemu oszczędzania z silnymi bodźcami do pozostania w nim w postaci dopłat pracodawców i dotacji z budżetu państwa