Critical reading of a text through its electronic supplement

A by-product of new social media platforms is an abundant textual record of engagements – billions of words across the world-wide-web in, for example, discussion forums, blogs and wiki discussion tabs. Many of these engagements consist of commentary on a particular text and can thus be regarded as supplements to these texts. The larger purpose of this article is to flag the utility value of this electronic supplementarity for critical reading by highlighting how it can reveal particular meanings that the text being responded to can reasonably be said to marginalise and / or repress. Given the potentially very large size of social media textual product, knowing how to explore these supplements with electronic text analysis software is essential. To illustrate the above, I focus on how the content of online discussion forums, explored through electronic text analysis software, can be used to assist critical reading of the texts which initiate them. The paper takes its theoretical orientations from the textual intervention work of Rob Pope together with themes in the work of the philosopher, Jacques Derrida

Implicit dialogical premises, explanation as argument: a corpus-based reconstruction

This paper focuses on an explanation in a newspaper article: why new European Union citizens will come to the UK from Eastern Europe (e.g., because of available jobs). Using a corpus-based method of analysis, I show how regular target readers have been positioned to generate premises in dialogue with the explanation propositions, and thus into an understanding of the explanation as an argument, one which contains a biased conclusion not apparent in the text. Employing this method, and in particular ‘corpus comparative statistical keywords’, I show how two issues can be freshly looked at: implicit premise recovery; the argument/explanation distinction

Posthumanism and Deconstructing Arguments

Posthumanism and Deconstructing Arguments: Corpora and Digitally-driven Critical Analysis presents a new and practical approach in Critical Discourse Studies. Providing a data-driven and ethically-based method for the examination of arguments in the public sphere, this ground-breaking book: Highlights how the reader can evaluate arguments from points of view other than their own; Demonstrates how digital tools can be used to generate ‘ethical subjectivities’ from large numbers of dissenting voices on the world-wide-web; Draws on ideas from posthumanist philosophy as well as from Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari for theorising these subjectivities; Showcases a critical deconstructive approach, using different corpus linguistic programs such as AntConc, WMatrix and Sketchengine. Posthumanism and Deconstructing Arguments is essential reading for lecturers and researchers with an interest in critical discourse studies, critical thinking, corpus linguistics and digital humanities

Posthumanism and Deconstructing Arguments

Posthumanism and Deconstructing Arguments: Corpora and Digitally-driven Critical Analysis presents a new and practical approach in Critical Discourse Studies. Providing a data-driven and ethically-based method for the examination of arguments in the public sphere, this ground-breaking book: Highlights how the reader can evaluate arguments from points of view other than their own; Demonstrates how digital tools can be used to generate ‘ethical subjectivities’ from large numbers of dissenting voices on the world-wide-web; Draws on ideas from posthumanist philosophy as well as from Jacques Derrida, Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari for theorising these subjectivities; Showcases a critical deconstructive approach, using different corpus linguistic programs such as AntConc, WMatrix and Sketchengine. Posthumanism and Deconstructing Arguments is essential reading for lecturers and researchers with an interest in critical discourse studies, critical thinking, corpus linguistics and digital humanities

Mystifying discourse: a critique of current assumptions and an alternative framework for analysis

The thesis is concerned with texts that mystify events being reported. It begins by focusing on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), a currently prominent enterprise, one of whose concerns is with the isolation of text which mystifies the nature of events described. When CDA isolates mystifying text, it is usually with the perspective of a non-analytical reader, either explicitly or implicitly in mind. However, the notion of a non-analytical reader in CDA is undeveloped from a cognitive point of view. The general structure of the thesis is as follows. In the first section, I show how CDA's approach to highlighting textual mystification is inadvertently bound up with symbolic notions of mental representation in cognitive science. In the second section, I outline theories of mental representation in connectionism and cognitive linguistics which problematise the symbolic assumptions of CDA and thus what CDA locates as mystifying text. The thesis develops cumulatively towards an alternative framework for highlighting mystification, in the third section, which includes compatible elements from connectionism, cognitive linguistics and recent psycholinguistic research on inference generation. My framework predicts how certain text can lead to mystification for a non-analytical reader who has little vested interest in a text and is largely unfamiliar with its subject matter. I show how mystification for this nonanalytical reader is connected with inference generation but, in contrast to CDA, I provide a detailed processing profile for such a reader. Attitudes in CDA towards inference generation are often inconsistent and are in conflict with recent psycholinguistic research. My framework, rooted in empirical psycholinguistic study, enables a more plausible, comprehensive and thus consistent perspective on inference generation in reading and how this relates to mystification. Finally, my framework also highlights CDA's 'overinterpretation' in text exegesis done by proxy for non-analytical readers

Mystifying discourse: a critique of current assumptions and an alternative framework for analysis

The thesis is concerned with texts that mystify events being reported. It begins by focusing\ud on Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA), a currently prominent enterprise, one of whose\ud concerns is with the isolation of text which mystifies the nature of events described. When\ud CDA isolates mystifying text, it is usually with the perspective of a non-analytical reader,\ud either explicitly or implicitly in mind. However, the notion of a non-analytical reader in\ud CDA is undeveloped from a cognitive point of view. The general structure of the thesis is\ud as follows. In the first section, I show how CDA's approach to highlighting textual\ud mystification is inadvertently bound up with symbolic notions of mental representation in\ud cognitive science. In the second section, I outline theories of mental representation in\ud connectionism and cognitive linguistics which problematise the symbolic assumptions of\ud CDA and thus what CDA locates as mystifying text. The thesis develops cumulatively\ud towards an alternative framework for highlighting mystification, in the third section, which\ud includes compatible elements from connectionism, cognitive linguistics and recent\ud psycholinguistic research on inference generation. My framework predicts how certain text\ud can lead to mystification for a non-analytical reader who has little vested interest in a text\ud and is largely unfamiliar with its subject matter. I show how mystification for this nonanalytical\ud reader is connected with inference generation but, in contrast to CDA, I provide\ud a detailed processing profile for such a reader. Attitudes in CDA towards inference\ud generation are often inconsistent and are in conflict with recent psycholinguistic research.\ud My framework, rooted in empirical psycholinguistic study, enables a more plausible,\ud comprehensive and thus consistent perspective on inference generation in reading and how\ud this relates to mystification. Finally, my framework also highlights CDA's 'overinterpretation'\ud in text exegesis done by proxy for non-analytical readers

Corpus-assisted literary evaluation

Fleur Adcock’s poem, Street Song, is evaluated by the stylistician, Roger Fowler, as ‘dynamic and disturbing’. I agree with his literary evaluation. These unsettling effects take place in initial response to the poem, effects which attract me into the work. In other words, they are experienced before proper reflection and analysis of the poem and individual interpretation of it. Implicit within Fowler’s evaluation is that this is likely to apply for readers generally. The purpose of this article is to show how empirical corpus evidence can usefully provide substantiation of such initial evaluations of literary works, showing whether or not they are likely to be stereotypically experienced by readers. In drawing on both schema theory and corpus analysis to achieve this, the article makes links between cognitive stylistic and corpus stylistic foci

Serial interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) testing to monitor treatment responses in cases of feline mycobacteriosis

The interferon-gamma release assay (IGRA) is used to diagnose cases of feline mycobacteriosis, but the use of serial testing to monitor treatment responses has not been evaluated in this species. From a population of cats that underwent IGRA testing for diagnostic investigation, individuals were identified with a pre- and end-of-treatment IGRA that passed control thresholds. The number of cats which reverted to negative at the end-of-treatment IGRA, changes in paired antigen-specific optical density (OD) values and differences in the pre-treatment antigen-specific OD values for those which underwent reversion were compared. Factors to explain reversion or recurrence of disease post-treatment were explored. Four of 18 cats (22%) reverted to negativity at the point of clinical resolution (p = 0.33), there was no difference in paired antigen-specific OD values (p ≥ 0.12), and cats that reverted did not have a lower baseline OD value (p = 0.63). No statistically significant factors were identified to predict reversion (p ≥ 0.08). Remaining positive at the end of treatment IGRA was not associated with recurrence of disease post-treatment (p = 0.34). Overall, these data suggest there is limited value in the use of the IGRA to monitor treatment responses in cats

Chlorhexidine versus povidone–iodine skin antisepsis before upper limb surgery (CIPHUR) : an international multicentre prospective cohort study

Introduction Surgical site infection (SSI) is the most common and costly complication of surgery. International guidelines recommend topical alcoholic chlorhexidine (CHX) before surgery. However, upper limb surgeons continue to use other antiseptics, citing a lack of applicable evidence, and concerns related to open wounds and tourniquets. This study aimed to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of different topical antiseptics before upper limb surgery. Methods This international multicentre prospective cohort study recruited consecutive adults and children who underwent surgery distal to the shoulder joint. The intervention was use of CHX or povidone–iodine (PVI) antiseptics in either aqueous or alcoholic form. The primary outcome was SSI within 90 days. Mixed-effects time-to-event models were used to estimate the risk (hazard ratio (HR)) of SSI for patients undergoing elective and emergency upper limb surgery. Results A total of 2454 patients were included. The overall risk of SSI was 3.5 per cent. For elective upper limb surgery (1018 patients), alcoholic CHX appeared to be the most effective antiseptic, reducing the risk of SSI by 70 per cent (adjusted HR 0.30, 95 per cent c.i. 0.11 to 0.84), when compared with aqueous PVI. Concerning emergency upper limb surgery (1436 patients), aqueous PVI appeared to be the least effective antiseptic for preventing SSI; however, there was uncertainty in the estimates. No adverse events were reported. Conclusion The findings align with the global evidence base and international guidance, suggesting that alcoholic CHX should be used for skin antisepsis before clean (elective upper limb) surgery. For emergency (contaminated or dirty) upper limb surgery, the findings of this study were unclear and contradict the available evidence, concluding that further research is necessary

The subconscious in James Joyce’s ‘Eveline’: a corpus stylistic analysis that chews on the ‘Fish hook’

In James Joyce’s short story, ‘Eveline’, a young woman is thinking about a new life away from an unhappy existence which involves caring for a violent father. In the story Eveline is to elope with Frank to Buenos Aires, but Eveline fails to join him on the night boat. This story has attracted much critical attention. In particular, commentators have picked up on the faint clues throughout that Eveline is not going to leave her home. It is as though Eveline’s subconscious is communicating this while she is consciously reflecting on whether to elope with Frank. But how can such clues be identified in a systematic way whilst responding to the familiar charges made by Stanley Fish that stylistic analysis and interpretation is arbitrary and circular (Fish, 1980a)? In this article, I perform a corpus-informed stylistic analysis of ‘Eveline’ in order to reveal some of these subconscious intimations whilst reducing as much as possible arbitrariness and circularity in analysis and interpretation. To do so, I build on formal insights into ‘Eveline’ provided in Stubbs’ (2001) corpus-informed analysis by proceeding to a more functional exploration of the story