Letters to the Editor

The author starts with the concept of genre as defined by Swales (Genre Analysis, 1990) and Johns (Text, Role and Context, 1997) and applies it to letters to the editor. She shows that although the texts from her corpus, taken from English and American magazines and journals dated October?–?November 2001, bear the same name for the genre category, they vary not only in content but also in length, register and syntax. Emphasis is put on the role(s) played by the writer, with an analysis of the use of first-person pronouns in particular, and the context – the page and the journal in which a letter appears. The focus of this paper is first to define the common features of letters to the editor; then to show how they can vary according to the magazines or journals that publish them; and finally to demonstrate how the meaning of a letter is constructed by the reader. Pedagogical implications in the field of English for Specific Purposes are drawn from this study of a genre.     

Painting Religion in Public: John Singer Sargent's Triumph of Religion at the Boston Public Library

Abstract

Remarkably, the Boston Public Library houses not one, but thrce, outstanding examples of late nineteenth-early twentieth-century muralism in the United States: Muses of Inspiration Acclaim Genius, Messenger of Enlightenment by the French muralist Pierre-Cecile Puvis de Chavannes (1895), Quest and Achievement of the Holy Grail Edwin Austin Abbey (1895/1901), and Triumph of Religion by John Singer Sargent (1919). Such a constellation of talent with its seemingly quixotic mixture of French, English and American elements, points to a sophisticated level of patronage among the city fathers and the library principals. As the Erst o[ the three murals that one encounters after ascending the grand staircase to the second floor landing, Muses of Inspiration holds pride of place within the architectural space. The Holy Grail sequence lines the walls of the Tudor-like Book Delivery Room, acljacent to the principal working area for the public, in the heart of the original building. Upstairs, on the third level just above the Muses of Inspiration.     

Assimilation,antigemination, and contingent optionality: the phonology of monoconsonantal proclitics in Polish

Baković (2005) analyzes the avoidance of ‘sufficiently similar’ adjacent consonants as the interaction of independent antigemination and assimilation processes. We present evidence from the phonology of monoconsonantal proclitics in Polish in support of the primary consequence of this analysis, that any conditions on antigemination or assimilation will also be conditions on ‘sufficient similarity’ avoidance. These conditions concern the segmental contexts in which geminates are disallowed in Polish and the variability of one of the assimilation processes involved. The analysis is further corroborated by the coincidence of two changes in progress: as the rate of variable assimilation has gone down, so has the rate of ‘sufficient similarity’ avoidance.     

Актуальный счет, или Двушка, трёшка, пятак…

The article considers the semantic asymmetry of nouns carrying a meaning related to numbers; such as dvu?ka, tre?ka, trojak, pjatak. The words dvu?ka and pjatak are primarily associated with coins while tre?ka and trojak are associated with banknotes. These words also have other meanings; the sets of those meanings do not coincide (‘grades’, ‘term of confinement’, ‘apartment with the corresponding number of bedrooms’, etc.). This semantic asymmetry receives a cultural interpretation. The choice of a particular meaning is stipulated by the cultural value of concepts such as, e.g., money. The most important and relevant meanings for a given period of time consolidate their influence on a numerical noun. E.g. the relevance of the ‘money’ meaning is determined, first of all, by the existence of a corresponding monetary unit and by the existence of a permanent function for such a unit (or for an equivalent amount of money). For these types of nouns we should also discuss the special semantic potential that exists, that is, the possibility of new meanings arising.     

Larra y el carlismo: El rechazo de un liberal hacia las clases populares campesinas

This study analyzes the five articles that Mariano José de Larra wrote at the beginning of the First Carlist War, first of a serie of three Civil Wars in Spain provoked by a dynastic problem during the XIXth Century. The Carlist movement, similar to the American Confederacy in its social constitution and aims, is also defined and analyzed in the light of the most recent studies on the topic. Through the analysis of the five journalistic texts by Larra I intend to analyze his ideological background and his perception of the popular classes and their role in XIX century Spain, and other prominent authors of the time such as José de Espronceda.     

Oral stereognosis and diadokokinetic tests in children and young adults

Data on oral stereognostic ability and lip and tongue diadokokinetic tests are presented for a range of ages from eight years to young adults. As anticipated, there is a general improvement in performance with age, but this is not a simple linear function except for the percentage of shapes correctly identified. No evidence could be found to support the theory that improvements in stereognostic skills are related to the onset of the adolescent growth spurt or the cessation of cranio-facial skeletal development. Sex differences for oral stereognostic ability suggest that ‘oral discriminatory function’ is superior in females, but diadokokinetic tests are apparently at odds with accepted thought; explanations for this are offered. ‘Normal’ values for the diadokokinetic tests (which form part of the Frenchay Dysarthria Test) over the age range studied are presented, information hitherto unavailable.