Make the document visually attractive

Leave plenty of white space – especially around key ideas. A densely written text stops people from even beginning to read it.

Diagrams and pictures show the information more clearly.

Practicum 11.4

Rearrange the extract to follow, add a diagram, rely on tip 4

There has been much debate over the ways in which historical ideology is passed on to the next generation, yet there has been almost no analysis of how countries teach economics. In France and Germany, schools have helped instill a serious aversion to the market economy; in Germany, support for socialist ideals is running at all-time highs: 47 per cent in 2007 vs 36 per cent in 1991. In the US, on the contrary, these ideas are losing ground, with 39 percent in 1991 vs 31 in 2007. In European countries, attempts at economic reform have been routinely blocked by a consensus against policies considered ‘pro-market’, while in America they are receiving wider response.

5. KISS (keep it straight & simple / stupid) your language

I apologize for a long letter. I had no time to write a short one (G.B. Shaw)

Keep it short and simple, the best average length of any sentence is 15 words.

Use Active rather than the Passive Voice. Try not to start with It is, there is

       K. Tailor. English at Work

Tips onhow to write abstracts (set 2)

An abstract is like a commercial: it is short, invites the customer / reader to try it, without specifying the way it works. It differs from a review (in the latter the results are specified and related to the similar papers and results obtained; can be long) or report (which implies a detailed account of the event, with time and location, etc. data provided; can be long).

An abstract precedes the main text (while reports / reviews are a separate product); is often followed by a list of key words.

Study the communication strategy of Writing Abstracts

Step 1	State the problems the author tackles
Step 2	State how the author contributed to the problem
Step 3	Define the target group

Practicum 11.5

Study the abstract to follow and focus on the expressions typical of abstracts

Metaphor has been extensively discussed within Translation Studies, predominantly with respect to translatability and transfer methods. It has been argued that metaphors can lead to translation problems, since transferring them from one language and culture to another one may be hampered by linguistic and cultural differences. A number of translation procedures for dealing with this problem have been suggested, e.g., substitution (metaphor into different metaphor), paraphrase (metaphor into sense), or deletion.

After short overview of how metaphor has been dealt with in Translation Studies, the paper focuses on some implications of a cognitive approach to metaphors for translation practice. Illustrations from authentic source and target texts (English-to-German political discourse) show how translators handle metaphorical expressions and how it effected the text perception by the addressee.

                                                                                          C. Schaffer. Journal of Pragmatics

Tips on how to write reviews (set 3)

Reviewing may be reduced to three basic steps

Step 1	General (state the problems the author tackles)
Step 2	Contents analysis (what has been done to solve the problem in question)
Step 3	Appraising / expressing attitude

Practicum 11.6

Relate Writi ng Abstracts and Reviews steps

Practicum 11.7

Study Writing Abstracts / Reviews vocabulary

1.General (or what it is about) may inform the reader of

- the subject covered in the research: the paper covers / offers a detailed account / distillation of 10-year research; is devoted to; a long standing problem;

- its relevance: needs / has not been given a comprehensive / detailed / special study yet / further investigation; no consensus has been achieved so far on; previous achievements / what has been done; might be crucial;

- its composition: contains / consists of / involves;

- the results obtained: what has been done / was studied / researched into / proved / established / discovered / found out / made clear; well-grounded / convincing; contributed to; findings;

- the prospects: what it will give rise to; the research / comparison / investigation / survey proves / makes it clear that / is opening / changing the basic perceptions / the current attitude; offers a solution to a long standing problem of; will enable the scientists / equip the research team with / make it possible to / help complete the project.

Practicum 11.8

Translate into English an extract from a review

В работе рассматриваются вопросы, связанные с изучением семантики единиц с общим значением недостаток, различия в их значениях и особенности употребления в речи, определяемые этими различиями.

Исследование включает введение, три главы, заключение и библиографию. Во введении формулируется цель и задачи исследования, обосновывается его актуальность, показана теоретическая и практическая значимость, а также новизна. В первой главе рассматриваются теоретические предпосылки и метод исследования; вторая и третья главы посвящены анализу материала исследования. В заключении обобщаются его основные результаты.

Полученные результаты могут использоваться в практике преподавания как теоретических, так и практических дисциплин; при составлении словарей и написании пособий, а также при выполнении курсовых и дипломных работ.

Practicum 11.9

Make up General part of Review of your graduation (research) paper, relying on Practicum 11.7

Contents analysis

Useful words to be relied on in talking research

-to list major issues and specify the research object: (the paper / author) researches / looks / goes into / reports / covers / deals in (with) / investigates / explores / tackles / puts forward an idea / elaborates (on) / proves / suggests arguments for (against) / makes it clear / clears up / claims / objects to / challenges / argues / focuses on / repeats / draws attention to / puts an emphasis on;

- to list minor issues: remarks / touches upon / mentions / outlines;

- to summarize and brief on the results obtained: concludes / arrives at a conclusion;

- to specify cognitive operations and visual devices the author relies on: flow charts / tables / figures & diagrams; compares / cites / illustrates / quotes.

Practicum 11.10

Make up Contents analysis part of review of your graduation (research) paper, following the plan above

Congratulations! – The review you composed will serve you as a valuable part of the research paper.

Appraisal

- to estimate the contribution and the author’s position: to criticize / object / challenge the current / offer a detailed (brief / systematic / comprehensive) account of; full of (controversial ideas); conventional / convincing arguments; to outline clear ways to / emphasize / give prominence to;

- to agree: to approve / share / support the view (stand / position) / join;

- to disagree: to find (minor) discrepancies between / flaws / faults / shortcomings / defects; to challenge the (current / conventional / traditional) view / belief; to (strongly) object to / ignore / to miss (some essential points); to provide convincing arguments; it is arguable

Practicum 11.11

Memorize useful adjective collocation s

- issue / problem / point / approach / message / (top) priority / idea may be

a) fundamental / crucial / high profiled / soaring / benchmark / landmark / global / key;

b) controversial / mind-bending / thought-provoking / challenging / unworkable / intricate / tricky (col.) / hard-worn / baffling / gripping / trivial;

c) looming / pending / outstanding / moot / burning / urgent;

- goal: main, ultimate, final, upcoming, coming, forthcoming

- research: experimental, theoretical, special, long-term, further, empirical, in-depth, all-round, detailed, current, exceptional, unique, challenging, moot, of (special) interest, thought-provoking, mind-bending, arguable, breakaway, upcoming, coming, forthcoming;

- way, approach, techniques: direct / indirect, complicated, complex, correct, pragmatic, current, running, mainstream, staple, common, popular; forward-looking;

- experiments and observations: objective, visual, numerous, regular, performed / carried out / conducted, practical, available, meant to / for, aimed at / to, targeted at;

- information and data: sufficient / insufficient, diversified, reliable / unreliable, accumulated, essential, related / relating to, concerned with / about, linked to, versatile, various;

- results and findings: recent, earlier, obtained, initial, valuable, convincing, authentic, genuine, relevant, immediate, arguable, of (prime) importance, crucial, critical, vital, debatable.

Practicum 11.12

Review the problems (contents-wise) to follow. Follow the points above (Practicum 11.11)

research into obesity; the problem of drug-abuse; why more young couples opt for going childless. Make up a review.

Sample Template: Research into GM food labeling standards

The problem of GM food labeling is a global issue which needs in-depth investigation. The current approach to labeling standards should be reconsidered as the practical observations and accumulated data revealed that even in mainstream supermarkets most GM ingredients go unmarked which makes the research and introducing new labeling legislation even more crucial, as …

Practicum 11.13

Make up a review of your peer’s research paper

II a. Writing Practice

Writing practices in general are based on the simple FSP-rule (functional sentence perspective), i.e. on the progress from the “old” information (=what is already known) to the new (the message of the proposition). Each following statement is “hooked” onto the previous one, e.g. Previous work has drawn attention to the fact that in many non-standard varieties of English the incidence of present tense marking is correlated with the complexity of the subject expression. A similar correlation holds between the use of resumptive subject pronouns in main clauses such as (cf., e.g. 1 – 2) and the complexity of the subject expression in informal and non-standard varieties of English (cf., e.g. 3 – 4). These example s distinguish between three degrees of complexity.

(Sometimes to establish connections between the statements the author may introduce connectors (then, in this case, it explains why, etc; далее, более того, также – не в начале предложения! – в работе / автор также, например, Методологическую основу исследования составляют когнитивные постулаты о природе значения. Автор также опирается на представления, разрабатываемые в рамках теории актуального членения.)

II b. FSP Practice

Practicum 11.14

Choose the best of the phrases to continue extracts, make your choice well-grounded

1. В работе используется метод компонентного анализа

- Американские ученые Лаунсбери и Гуденаф первыми ввели в лингвистику метод компонентного анализа

- Этот метод был впервые введен в лингвистику американскими учеными Лаунсбери и Гуденафом

- В лингвистику этот метод был введен американскими учеными Лаунсбери и Гуденафом  

2. Дистрибутивный анализ основан на изучении синтагматических связей языковой единицы

- Исследуются все возможные условия употребления слова, его…

- Все возможные условия употребления слова исследуются, оно получает полное описание

- Слово получает описание с точки зрения его окружения

3. Использование гипотетико-дедуктивного метода в лингвистике затруднено в силу ряда причин

- Гипотетико-дедуктивный метод опирается на использование экспериментальной процедуры исследования

- Этот метод не получил широкого распространения прежде всего потому, что

- Одна из трудностей определяется отсутствием традиций экспериментальной работы в лингвистике

4. It is convenient for our purposes to distinguish Metonymy I and Metonymy 2

- M1 will embrace traditional cases such as Iran sent a note to Iraq.

-This type of metonymy is uncontroversial.

-Many linguists treat this metonymy as a regular stylistic device.

5. Cognitive semantics sees language as part of our cognitive ability through which we organize and classify all aspects of our experience

- This view is based on the assumption that meaning is linked to the way we group all kinds of perceptions and phenomena into conceptual categories.

- The cognitive semantics deals with categorization and conceptualization.

- Cognitive semantics dates back as far as 1980s.

Practicum 11.15

Analyze the extracts to follow FSP-wise, find where the reader is likely to stumble

1.При проведении семантического исследования необходимо последовательно различать значение языковой единицы и класс ее денотации, или сам объект (денотат), с одной стороны, и вносимую о нем информацию, с другой. Значение понимается как информация, вносимая языковым знаком о своем денотате. Вместе с тем, под денотатом понимается не просто объект внеязыковой действительности, это объект (физической или не-физической природы), «пропущенный» через восприятие носителя языка.

2.Метод исследования. Исследование выполнено на основе применения дистрибутивного, контекстного, компонентного и валентного анализа; ведущим при проведении исследования был гипотетико-дедуктивный метод, основанный на последовательном применении лингвистического эксперимента. Основным методом, принятым в данной работе, является гипотетико-дедуктивный. Основные этапы ГДМ применительно к лингвистике, были сформулированы в работе Ю.С.Степанова, где выделяются / который выделяет следующие этапы …(Степанов 1974). В работах О.Н.Селиверстовой предложено теоретическое обоснование использования в лингвистике экспериментальной методики.

3.Frame semantics is the specific approach to natural language semantics. The idea that one cannot understand the meaning of a word or a linguistic expression without access to all the encyclopedic knowledge that relates to this word is its essential starting point.

4.If one looks at Cognitive linguistics from this perspective, there are indications that it combines a number of tendencies that may also be found in other contemporary developments in theoretical linguistics. CL taps directly into the undercurrents of contemporary developments by combining these tendencies.

Text 11a

The text to follow deals in a linguistic problem. Study the text and make up its abstract and review

Metonymy

In the tradition of lexical semantics, metaphor and metonymy are distinguished on the basis of the type of semantic association they involve. Metaphor is supposed to be based on similarity (if love is war, it is like war in a number of respects), whereas metonymy is said to be based on contiguity – a somewhat vague notion that could be clarified in terms of actual proximity or association. For instance, when you fill up your car, you don’t fill the entire vehicle with fuel, but only the gas tank. The name of the whole come to stand for the part, and part and whole are associated in reality.

Now, metonymy research in cognitive linguistics received an important impetus from the recognition that metonymy could receive a definition that is nicely complementary to that of metaphor. If metaphor is seen as a mapping from one domain to the other, metonymy can be seen within a single domain. The shift from whole to part in car is a shift within the physical, spatial domain. The view on the relationship between metaphor and metonymy was already made in Lakoff and Johnson’s Metaphors we live by, but the article ‘The role of domains in the interpretation of metaphors and metonymies’ by William Croft adds an innovative perspective. The relevant shift, Croft argues, is not necessarily one within a single domain, but it may be a shift within a domain matrix.

The domain matrix is a notion introduced by Ronald W. Langacker: it captures the idea that a concept may be simultaneously defined in various domains. For instance, Shakespeare is not only defined as a physical person, but also in the literary domain, as an author. So, when you say that you have read the whole of Shakespeare, you metonymically mean the entirety of his literary production, rather than the person. What Croft suggests, then, is to define metonymy overall in terms of such a domain matrix.

                                                             D. Geraerts. A Rough Guide to Cognitive Linguistics

Practicum 11.16

Translate the italicized word combinations in Text 11a into Russian

Practicum 11.17

Write an abstract, provide a 5-word list of key words

Text 11b

The text to follow deals in talking science (linguistics). Make up an abstract of the text

Metaphor and the Euro

The paper deals with the way the new European currency is conceived in English mass media, particularly the use of structural metaphors to convey the negative and positive attitude towards the currency.

The research involves compilingand editing of a corpus consisting of articles dealing with the Euro currency according to the degree of technical language used, their supported readership, and their ideological and political stance.

Before analyzing examples from the subcorpora (from two national broadsheet newspapers) we will briefly introduce the theoretical background on metaphors to which we referred, and the methodology we followed to identify the two structural metaphors relating to the new currency.

Our starting point was the work by Lakoff and Johnson on the cognitive theories of metaphors, which defines metaphor as ‘understanding and experiencing one kind of thing in terms of another’ and covers the potential this entails of highlighting certain aspects of the concept expressed while hiding others incompatible with the metaphor.

The analysis showed that both frequency lists included among the most common content words the terms entry, joining and launch. It led us to the idea that the Euro is treated as A CONTAINER metaphor (entry creates an opposition between what is inside to what remains outside). Then both joining and launch can be viewed as expressions of the metaphor THE EURO IS A MECHANICAL OBJECT (join portrays two mechanical objects coming into contact to connect with each other).

We found other words to add to the metaphors, e.g. spatial prepositions in, inside, into, out, outside and within.

A basic analysis clearly shows that one of the newspapers (the Guardian) has more positive mentions and the ambiguous ones are about as frequent as the negative. On the other hand, not only does The Times have many more negative examples, but its ambiguous cases are slightly more frequent than the positive ones. A qualitative examination of a few examples from the two newspapers will also illustrate the different discourse strategies they adopt in their treatment of the topic.

                                                                               Linguistic Insights. Corpora and Discourse

Practicum 11.18

Translate the italicized word combinations in Text 11b into Russian

PROGRESS TEST 11