PARLAY - Issue 5

PARLAY Proceedings – Issue 5 (June 2022)

PARLAY 2021 was held at the University of York on 29 September 2021.

Editor: Ben Gibb-Reid

Address terms in Akan: A reflection of socio-cultural characteristics and the role of women

Paulina Amonyiwa Arhin

Abstract

Women in Akan society (a Kwa language group in Ghana) are wielded considerable power and responsibilities but they are expected to portray certain behavioral characteristics such as being submissive and respecting their male counterparts (Diabah and Amfo 2015). Studies such as Diabah and Amfo (2015), Gyan et al (2020), and Dzahene-Quarshie and Omari (2021) view the representation of women through the lens of Akan proverbs. This paper focuses on exploring the address terms for women that reflect the socio-cultural characteristics and the role of women in the Akan cultural context. The paper further discusses the various address terms and the concepts that inform the representation of women. The paper also discusses the social discoursal functions of the women address terms. This paper is an ethnographic study with data collected mainly through observation of the use of women address terms in conversations and interviews. Additional data was obtained from dramatic performances and relevant interactions in daily lives and on various media stations. 35 address terms were transcribed, thematically categorised, and descriptively analyzed. The study showed how concepts such as age, behavioral characteristics, physique, and biological role of women have been adopted in the above-mentioned address terms. The paper also demonstrated that the women address terms are used to reflect on the interpersonal relationships in the community and serve as a corrective device as well as a motivation for good deeds in society. The findings amplify the fact that Akan women's address terms reflect the social characteristics and responsibilities of women.

Scots language (post)vernacular public health communications during the COVID-19 pandemic: A case study of Bramble Graphics

Simon Gall

Abstract

During the COVID-19 pandemic, individuals and institutions in North-East Scotland have been creating and promulgating public health communications in North-East Scots. These communications, which have appeared both on and offline, implore friends, followers, service users, and customers to follow the official public health guidance and frequently engage very large numbers of people on social media, often far more than similar English-language posts. In this article, I discuss a single example of this phenomenon: a viral post made on Facebook by Karen Barrett-Ayres through her business page Bramble Graphics. I explore her own motivations in making the post as well as her theories about the reasons for its success. I build on her evaluations and suggest that her use of Scots was, what Jeffery Shandler calls, postvernacular, that is, Scots deployed largely for its meta-communicative power rather than for routine communication (Shandler, 2005). For audiences who shared this postvernacular frame of understanding of Scots, the words and phrases in the graphics became symbolically important, converting the communication into something to be used and played with rather than simply read and understood. The post became a powerful digital artefact, stimulating discussions of shared cultural identity and facilitating the enactment of positive emotional practices (Scheer, 2012) in the dark and uncertain days of early lockdown.

The use of expressive language means in British and Belarusian media space

Pavel Glazko

Abstract

This paper reports on the peculiarities of expressive language means used in personal genres of British and Belarusian media space. Increased information sharing, significant changes in genre system and accretive subjectivity (Elliot, 2000; Welbers & Opgenhaffen, 2018) have transformed media communication over the last decade. The category of expressiveness has been brought into the focus of our research as one of the most prominent ways of manifestation of authors’ subjectivity. Recently published texts of different authorship belonging to different personal genres of modern media (opinion, blog, and column) were subjected to linguo-stylistic, contextual and comparative analyses. As a result, it has been found out that while personal genres in British media discourse are equally expressive at lexical and syntactical levels, personal genres in Belarusian discourse demonstrate a greater degree of expressiveness from syntactical point of view, which indicates the preference of Belarussian authors towards implicit means of expressiveness as compared with their British colleagues.

Routine questions in question: Opening moves in academic student supervision interaction

Zhiying Jian

Abstract

Openings are the beginning of encounters where the participants establish their identities and (re)build social relationships (Schegloff, 1986). Across open encounters in a range of formal interactions, personal state inquiries (PSIs) like "How are you?" and agenda-setting questions (ASQs) constitute two opening routines (Pillet-Shore, 2018; van der Laaken & Bannink, 2020; Robinson et al., 2016). However, how academic student supervision (“supervision” henceforth) openings unfold is understudied. This study will adopt the conversation analytic/interactional linguistic approach (Sacks et al., 1974; Couper-Kuhlen & Selting, 2001), drawing on 12 hours' video recordings of authentic supervision interactions. Findings: Follow-up PSIs and ASQs are projectable regarding the upcoming activity (Auer, 2005). Moreover, they provide opportunities for students to raise troublesome experiences in their research or life: PSIs can be responded to with an untoward state of affairs by students; ASQs can also occasion reports of problems related to the agenda in some way. Implications: These findings can broaden our understanding of supervision openings and their unprecedented potential to allow students to speak up about their struggles, concerns, and doubts in the early moments of the encounters.

Language and identity: Analysing the experiences of international students in Anglophone universities

Jenny Steele

Abstract

The aim of this critical review is to situate the reader in scholarly discussion centred on the relationship between language and identity and how it applies to university students from overseas. This will form the basis for a sociolinguistic study into how international students are positioned in different contexts: on a pre-sessional programme in English for Academic Purposes (EAP) and on their subsequent degrees in Scotland. Early-stage analysis indicates that, although there is much discussion around the potential challenges they face, significant gaps in understanding remain. Thus, if the internationalisation of Higher Education is to continue unabated, it is necessary to conduct further investigation into their lived experiences. After discussing work carried out to date, the paper proposes that a mixed-methods case study approach could provide a more detailed picture of this timely issue.