Epistemic Modality Variation in Community Law Journals

Over the last decades the attention of scholars working in the filed of academic discourse has been directed towards language variation, and academic writing is not any more considered as a consistent and homogeneous form of discourse. The importance traditionally given to the consensual and static aspects of disciplinary communication has been coupled with the emphasis increasingly placed to the analysis of interactions/practices/activities that sustain discourse communities. According to the sociolinguist approach, genres become ‘dynamically rhetorical structures’ that can be manoeuvred according to the discipline’s norms, values and ideology, both historically and incrementally changing …

Retorica e discorso politico

Nell'ambito dei discorsi specialistici, il political discourse si pone come uno dei più interessanti sotto il profilo della retorica e della discourse analysis. La comprensione e interpretazione di un corpus di discorsi politici, inclusi nel presente lavoro monografico, attraverso gli strumenti teorici della Rhetorical Analysis e Critical Discourse Analysis mette in luce le ragioni, motivazioni e strategie che stanno alla base di precise sceltelessico-grammaticali, terminologiche, e semantiche degli autori dei political speeches. I risultati ottenuti sono quindi interpretati e valutati sulla base dell'importante relazione fra testo (nel caso specifico il discorso politico) e il contesto ent…

The Role of Pronouns in Political Communication

Among the specialized languages, political discourse is one of the most interesting and revealing one, particularly from the point of view of Critical Discourse Analysis. This book gives special emphasis to the rhetorical instruments and, in particular, the role of pronouns in political discourse. The analysis of a corpus of political speeches will reveal the rhetorical strategies deployed by the speaker in order to influence his/her audience.

Legal English

The Milk of Almonds:Italian American Women Writers on Food and Culture

OH Granma give me your guts. Search for the Self in Italian American Women Writers

‘Europeanization’ of Family Law: Interaction/Intersection of Cultural and Lexical diversities

The variety of national family laws constitutes a serious obstacle to the free movement of persons within the European Union. From this point of view, the establishment of minimum standards together with the creation of a ‘common core’ of family law rules become one of the main goals of the EU institutions in order to make the principle of Community freedom effective. Since the late 1990s the discourse on the relationship between family law(s) and Community law has changed significantly (1999 Action Plan; The Amsterdam Treaty, art.65; EU Treaty, art.39). Yet, notwithstanding the general sociological/socio-cultural changes that have affected the legal categories of family and marriage (i.e.,…

Political Discourse as Culture and Ideology

This book explores the way in which pronominal relations and rhetorical strategies in political discourse determine the relationship speaker/audience, thus conditioning both the discourse organizational structures and the development of ideological content. The texts themselves are analysed from three different points of view: (i) in terms of Critical Discourse Analysis (CDA); (ii) in terms of rhetorical analysis; (iii) in terms of ideological content. More specifically, the intergration of rhetorical analysis into Critical Discourse Analysis is relevant and allows us to understand the realationship between linguistic structures on the one hand, and how these structures are designed to infl…

Whose Language Counts?Language Policy in the United States and Contemporary Social Change

The Discursive Construction of European Identity: Stylistic Analysis of "Text in Context"

The Draft Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe submitted to the European Council meeting in Thessaloniki on June 2003 was intended to repeal by a single instrument all the existing European treaties (about 16 Treaties enacted between 1951-ECSC Treaty and 2001-Treaty of Nice, with the exception of the Euratom Treaty). Indeed, the ratification by all the Member States of the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe was necessary in order to enter it into force. Because of the difficulties and problems faced in ratifying the Treaty, the European Council decided in 2005 to start a ‘period of reflection’ on the future of the European Union. In particular, at the European Council me…