In 1934, the painter Balthus (Balthasar Klossowski, 1908–2001) opened his first one-man show in Paris, comprising five erotic and sexually violent scenes involving adolescents and younger children. Over the following decades, he continued to depict girls in ways that art historians and critics have widely discussed as morally problematic. There is no shortage of art historical writing on Balthus, but

Text World Theory (Gavins, 2007; Werth, 1999) offers a cognitive linguistic account of the mental representations created during discourse comprehension. To date, text-world accounts of comprehension have largely focussed on the mental representations created in the moment of discourse processing, and little attention has so far been paid to how text-world representations change over time. However

This case study investigates the impact of different bilingual dictionaries on L2 vocabulary learning through meaning-focused reading among 369 intermediate English learners. Three dictionaries were selected that reflect the specific practices of the foreign language classrooms under study: PONS Online Dictionary, Langenscheidt Paper Dictionary and Le Robert & Collins Paper Dictionary. Participants

This study explores the concept of literary voyeurism as a complex phenomenon, involving the dynamics of observation, power, and ethical responsibility within literary narratives. Drawing on psychoanalytic frameworks from Sigmund Freud, Jacques Lacan, Julia Kristeva, and Jean Bellemin-Noël, this study examines voyeurism not only as an act of observing but as a legitimate and illegitimate mechanism

A widespread assumption about the intrinsic function of reading fiction is that it allows us to live other lives beyond our own, satisfying our need to experience alternative identities. This claim is not only recurring among some of the most quoted statements made by literary authors (Eco, 1991; Martin, 20,111; Vargas Llosa, 1984), but it is also at the core of theories within media psychology and

This paper examines the musical boundaries that emerge from the distinct consumption patterns of rap audiences. Using the actual listening histories of around 1000 French users of the music streaming platform Deezer, we apply dimensionality reduction and clustering methods to explore the musical boundaries that emerge from distinctive audience consumption patterns, with a particular focus on rap music

In this paper we reimagine linear regression modeling as a relational method for cultural analysis. Drawing on the dual-to-regression analytic approach (Schoon, Melamed & Breiger, 2024), we argue that the fundamental building blocks in a regression equation are not single variables, but configurations of variables manifested by clusters of cases. In a study of peer effects and achievement in an academic

In the paper, we try to classify texts from the criminal justice and security field according to the classification for LSP (Language for Specific Purpose) texts prepared by Mikolič (2007) for the typology of tourism texts. Within that classification, we outline the current position held by the LSP field of criminal justice and security in Slovenia and the development of field-specific terminology

ChatGPT has stirred debates in lexicographic circles, raising questions about its future role in the work of lexicographers. Between October 2023 and June 2024, this study investigated the opinions of 225 Polish students of English, focusing on their use of ChatGPT alongside monolingual and bilingual lexical tools. Our results indicate that ChatGPT is generally regarded as an effective aid for writing

From the 1980s onwards, Derrida began writing numerous experimental and playful texts, particularly in the form of prefaces. This article first explores why Derrida uses the preface as a textual laboratory, then shows that, after ‘the end of the book’, the preface is both an impossible mode of writing and the only permitted mode of writing. Derrida takes Hegel as both a precursor and an adversary:

This paper, a follow-up to Boas/Ruppenhofer/Baker (2024), reports on the results and applications of the FrameNet database. It spells out how FrameNet data have been used in linguistic theory, computational linguistics, multilingual lexicography, and foreign language teaching and learning. The paper also provides more information about the organization of the FrameNet project, inlcuding organizational

This Research Notes piece explores how journalists use digital platforms to shift conversations about a single event into broader critiques about their industry. In this paper, we document this shift in the case of Audie Cornish’s departure from National Public Radio. We analyze a corpus of 7886 tweets related to her 2022 move from public radio to CNN. How did journalists respond to the event via digital

An immigrant dictionary has been defined as a reference work specifically designed for an immigrant audience. The need for dictionaries with this audience has increased, given the movement of peoples in the 21st century. Lexicography requires a deeper understanding of the nature of such dictionaries. In the present study, we delve into lemma choice: Which lemmata should the lexicographer choose to

In gangster movies, mob bosses typically communicate their criminal objectives to henchmen or adversaries in opaque ways. This type of discursive behaviour considerably contributes to the creation of suspense for film audiences, since a startling sense of uncertainty and anticipation is evoked until the intimidatory words eventually culminate in violent actions. This paper adopts a qualitative pragma-stylistic

Autofiction is characterized by ambiguation of generic conventions. While postmodern autofictional texts often explicitly comment on genre, much autofiction avant-la-lettre merges generic modes more subtly, namely through narrative structure and style. The article argues that, therefore, in the exploration of autofiction in a diachronic perspective, consideration of stylistic and narratological details

This article uses a diachronic approach to examine how on social media platforms such as YouTube and TikTok, readers of fiction discuss and also stage strong affects connected with their reading of ‘books that made me cry’. While this trend may seem to be generated wholly by the affordances of digital media, it will be examined in what interesting ways it also connects with the eighteenth-century vogue

The paper presents key results in the diachronic analysis of recognition (Aristotle’s concept of anagnorisis ) in works of Anglophone narrative fiction and film. Its focus is on the developing cognitive diversity in the representation of character responses during the cognitive-emotional crux which occurs at the heart of the recognition scene. The three forms covered are the recognition of close relationships

This study explores a possible change in politeness conventions in Scottish correspondence written between 1570 and 1750. It is hypothesised that longer request sequences, that is, macro-requests, will display a diachronic shift towards a more prominent use of addressee-oriented face-enhancing speech acts as supportive moves, for instance, compliments or thanking, which have been found to be typical

This article discusses Chaucer’s perspective on the ideological structures that inform the writing of literary history. In the first verses of the Franklin’s Tale , Chaucer first engenders and then deconstructs an – implicit – teleological narrative of literary history that links questions of genre, orality and history only to deconstruct, in almost the same breath, that very narrative by poetic means

The development of uses of reader (third-person and vocative) are investigated in the Corpus of Late Modern English Text (1710-1920) with regard to frequencies and functions. Overall, reader declines, indicating a shift away from nominal and more formal style. Third-person uses are more common than vocatives, which cluster especially in the early nineteenth century and in emotive, personalized texts

Middle English is the essential stage in the development of English second-person pronouns. This is the time when honorific forms ye / you / your emerge, as commonly believed under French influence, gradually become default, and eventually oust the inherited singular forms thou / thee / thi(ne) to marked contexts and regionally restricted varieties. This paper addresses the initial stages of these

Both linguists and literary scholars deal with change over time. This special issue approaches the question of diachronic development from a comparative perspective, contrasting the ways in which analysis of changes observable in literary texts over the centuries is handled in the realm of literary studies and how linguists discuss language-specific (dis)continuities from one period to the other. For

This study examines EFL teachers and students in Thai universities’ perspectives on digital dictionary use, particularly in the context of technological advancements and the COVID-19 pandemic. A survey of 74 teachers and 900 students revealed significant differences in their dictionary preferences. While teachers preferred comprehensive online learners’ dictionaries for their accuracy and depth, students

This paper reports an initial application of contemporary cognitive stylistics to forensic linguistic contexts. In both areas, a need has been identified for robust analyses. An intercoder reliability study was developed using data from a historic authorship analysis case involving single-authored hate mail. Exploring the applicability of Cognitive Grammar’s notion of construal as a reliable framework

Culture is a relational concept, and the empirical manifestations of culture are worth being analysed in a structural vein to unveil the patterns of relations constituting them. Critical to exploring the intersections of culture and structure are relational methodologies, especially geometric data analysis (GDA) and social network analysis (SNA). Over the years, these two perspectives – as distinct

This article reviews Narrating Migrations from Africa and the Middle East 9781350274549

Discussions of storytelling and narrative have encompassed abstraction in different ways including master narratives (Bamberg, 1997) and storylines (Harré & van Lagenhove, 1998). These discussions, however, have often viewed storytelling and abstraction as a binary distinction, rather than a spectrum where speakers move between different levels of abstraction when recounting experiences. This article

Non-fictional narratives have an open-ended character that projects roles and values to those who participate in them. Narrative participation, in turn, entails narrative assessment and identification processes, through which adherence to values and positions may fail or be achieved. In the analysis of interviews with university students across Turkey, we draw on Fisher’s narrative paradigm to focus

This paper advances the field of narratives by focusing on the narratives of personal experience disclosed by students with mental health conditions, in particular depression, anxiety and borderline personality disorder, in medical consultations. I draw on sociolinguistic and discourse-analytic approaches to the analysis of narratives in interaction, viewing language as a tool for constructing social

This study investigated the associations of narrative processing while recounting a past victimization experience with different forms (i.e., physical and relational) and functions (i.e., reactive vs proactive) of aggressive behavior. Moderating effects of respiratory sinus arrhythmia reactivity and gender were explored. Two hundred college students participated in a semi-structured laboratory interview

This paper examines how disaster-related discourses are produced in storytelling, and whether and in what way these discourses may change in the second telling. We examine two sets of retold stories taken from a corpus of 123 retold stories about the 2010/2011 Canterbury earthquakes in New Zealand. Findings indicate that these storytellers tell structurally similar stories, yet implement subtle linguistic

Turkey is the largest refugee host country in the world with about 3.5 million registered Syrian refugees. In this study, we explored intergroup relations between Syrian refugees and Turks in Turkey. We focused on how Turkish people perceived Syrian refugees in Turkey and how these two groups interacted daily. We used an adaptation of McAdams’ Life Story Interview and asked questions about Syrian refugees

This article focuses on how the concept of “turning points” can be used in narrative research when studying people’s (professional) identities and identity formation. By examining various understandings of turning points, we aim to show how they can be identified and used as analytical tools in different ways when conducting narrative analyses of (professional) identity formation. A case study from

Individuals create both personal and culturally shared meaning through narratives; however, sparse research has explored the specific ways in which individuals might use such cultural narratives in creating meaning from developmentally important experiences. In this study, we examine how emerging adults narrate positive romantic relationships, both because emerging adulthood is critical for the development

Classical music orchestras are vital to the cultural scenes of both Germany and USA. Despite ongoing discussions on musical canon, gender equality, and repertoire innovation, empirical studies on the actual frequency of performances of individual classical music works in both countries are scarce. In this study, concert programs of professional orchestras from the 2019/20 and 2023/24 seasons were collected

Classical Western thought presupposes a value realism, in which values and meanings are part of the “furniture of things.” Ushering in a radical change in the locus of thought, a modern dualistic metaphysics generally rejects external sources of value in favor of understanding meaning and value as a subjective projection of the individual. Because the subject's interiority is the exclusive source of

This article examines pronominal references to anthropomorphic animal characters in contemporary Finnish-language picture books for children ( N = 531). In the Finnish language, the choice of third person pronoun is a key means of distinguishing humans from other animals. The study shows that animal characters in children’s literature are linguistically placed between humans and nonhumans: in about

Sociological research on culture has long conceptualized categorical differentiation in terms of relational “distances” and relied on network imagery to describe the structural properties of fields of cultural production and consumption. Partly constrained by research design, extant research on relational similarity often focuses on either one-mode social networks, or two-mode cultural affiliation

The cross-use of network and geometric data analyses helps understand how the circulation of symbolic goods is structured. It follows specific logic, intersecting economic and symbolic planes in shaping spaces that do not entirely align with political borders. Both help map circulation spaces and understand their operational logic, aiming to visualize the proximities and/or distances between different

Even though participation in the arts (a.k.a. hobbies) of employed persons has risen steadily since the early twentieth century, research has not systematically explored the relationship between occupations and hobbies. We address this gap by investigating the intersection and cultural co-constitution of these two forms of engagement by drawing on Breiger's influential work on duality. We introduce

The study of linguistic variation in fiction often concerns the use of dialect features as a tool for characterization; however, its use in situating the author in the construction of the text is less remarked upon. This paper considers both of these uses by examining Lemony Snicket’s usage of four sociolinguistic variables in A Series of Unfortunate Events . ASOUE is of particular interest because

Cultural objects possess varying degrees of cultural power, defined as their capacity to directly or indirectly shape beliefs and behavior. Research on cultural objects has identified various ways cultural objects possess cultural power, such as by evoking meanings and emotions and stabilizing and disrupting collective practices. This paper extends research on cultural power by investigating how the

How do status orders emerge in cultural fields? Our study sheds new light on this question by investigating the interplay of networks and status among Hollywood filmmakers from 1920 to 2000. Information on artistic references and collaborations of more than 9,500 filmmakers retrieved from the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) allows us to examine long-term changes in the social organization of this cultural