Appunti corso Lingua inglese

CASE STUDY: BRITAIN INVADED BY AN ARMY OF ILLEGALS

Conceptualization of immigrants something is missing in the text, but it is implied: a passive construction in the title, term "invasion" is not "immigration". The linguistic choice of the subject. What kind of effect/perlocution does it generate in the reader? Especially when this text was published, in 1989? That Britain is the victim, and these immigrants are the "bad enemy from whom to be defended" is necessary. There are microstructures that create a very strong message against the immigrants or increase the sense of danger or fear, for example a passive grammar construction of the sentences, the continuous form. The author at first seems to pity the situation of immigrants, but eventually he uses strong terms that give a negative position to them: they still have jobs, they still can be seen, they are so desperate that engage in something illegal... they might -> implicit.

Idea that they can be dangerous, because they can do anything. Even of the possessive form of "our", gives off the idea that they are and should not be "here". The usage invaders The usage the number (that doesn't refer of to any source, very sus), increase the sense of panic that the reader could feel. The text doesn't say that there are also many other legal immigrants, or why that jobs are important, necessary and non-immigrants workers end up being "slaved" in those considered by British people; why jobs. This attempting to maintain a positive, emphatic (???) about them is a FACE (??) – POLITICAL CORRECTNESS: it is opposite to biased/prejudice communication is a position that many have that that doesn't discriminate or demean. NON E' IL CORRISPONDENTE DI assume that language can be used in a way "POLITICAMENTE CORRETTO". Many people use this form to mask their political and ethical position. Some – generated

are "coloured person", "same-sex marriage", "senior citizen", "differently abled", "ethnic minorities", and "vertically challenged". Many are against the political correctness because of the explicit denial - no solution to this anger (that many have because they can't express their own opinion, not realizing that they can be immoral). LANGUAGE AND POLITICS There is a political point of view of languages. Everything is political at the end. An example of how the language is used politically is the novel "1984" by George Orwell, where he believed that language used after the WWII was necessarily vague and meaningless, intended to hide the truth and not to express it, and he encourages concreteness and clarity instead of this vagueness. A political language is a persuasive/powerful one. Through language

We can give an appearance of solidity. Political language is designed to make lies sound truthful and murder respectful, to mask the reality.

Euphemism: an innocuous word or expression used in place of one that may be found offensive. Are used to refer to taboo topics in a polite and speakable way, or to mask profanity. For example, death is a strong concept, and instead of explicitly say that are used expression such as "to pass away" instead of "to die". The excess of politeness in an implicit stereotype. The excess of euphemism is a problem, because lightening too much something makes that concept less important to what it is and is very dangerous -> calling of torture. They are both negative words but with different meaning: while abuse means mistreatment, torture denotes a violent crime which involves severe physical pain. There are different levels of abuse, torture is only one.

Dysphemism: an expression with connotations that are offensive either about the subject or to the audience. They can be offensive and oppressive words. They started to be used in politics (Donald Trump was one of the first). The pragmatic meaning is stronger. Politics, or in general important people use this kind of language to persuade because they want to be nearer to common people, it is more direct from a cognitive and pathos-oriented level.

Orthopemism: refers to neutral expressions. Semantic and pragmatic meaning are not the same!

CASE STUDY: EUPHEMISM – George Carlin, a comedian really involved in Politics that in the show focuses on a very specific word -> shell shock. It is a term that wasn’t used over time because it and its related euphemisms were too violent and direct. Other euphemisms are “battle fatigue”, “operational exhaustion”, “post-traumatic stress disorder”. The core of the message is that we should learn how to deal

with reality without using this soft language. From a semantic point of view, we can consider the four expressions (fatigue, war, shock.) as part of the same semantic meaning, but pragmatically, the arbitrary signified are different because they communicate something different. PERSUASION When we analyse a text, video, article anything that is communicating, we need to take account of persuasive intentions. The pragmatic meaning is the most important one, because it is the one that really communicates. The euphemistic evolution of the form in the speech of John Kerry and Donald Trump, the same concept can be translated differently and sound aggressively or evoke other emotions. Same semantic (they are talking about Iraq) but different pragmatic. Their speech is persuasive because they are near the common spoken use. To persuade: prevail on a person to do something, as by advising or urging; to induce to believe appealing to reason, to convince. L'attenzione "richiamare. To appeal:

Avere la capacità di attrarre, di richiamare alla ragione". "Persuade" deriva dal latino "persuadere", che significa convincere attraverso il parlare; il termine "persuasione" significa indurre qualcuno a credere qualcosa. - è un principio AIDA, dalle linee guida della pubblicità e del marketing, molto simile a ciò che accade con il linguaggio. A (attenzione, attirare l'attenzione) I (interesse, suscitare interesse) D (desiderio, convincere i clienti che vogliono quella cosa) A (azione, guidare il pubblico verso un'azione, ad esempio l'acquisto o l'accordo con un argomento -> creare un allineamento ideologico). L'obiettivo della persuasione è influenzare la visione del pubblico su determinati argomenti, che sia cambiare completamente la loro opinione o rafforzare una già esistente. Ci sono strategie per persuadere, tre appelli retorici che derivano da Aristotele. Sono le tre macro-strategie; da esse possiamo trovare molte sottos-trategie (ad esempio la metafora...):

Ethos - ethical appeal - convince the audience of the own credibility or character. It is used to demonstrate worth and being a credible source. It is how you introduce yourself. Can be developed in many ways, such as choosing an appropriate language for topic and audience, sound fair and unbiased, introducing own expertise. Related to the Persona (persona pubblica di un individuo).

As a medical doctor with twenty years of experience, I've seen the effects of smoking first-hand.

Logos - logical appeal - convince an audience by usage of reason. Logos means the or that the inward thought is expressed. By which = You argue in a very logical way. Can be developed by using advanced, theoretical, or abstract language. It is based on facts or logic. Three ways of using the logical appeal effectively are:

1. Provide a foundation to your argument
2. Use a fact or event that can be compared to the current subject
3. It gives the audience a sound logic difficult to argue.

Theabut schools and Iraq use this kind of logic "if/then".

Research has linked smoking with a higher prevalence of certain types of cancer, including lungcancer and leukaemia.–- Pathos emotional appeal -> persuade an audience by appealing to their emotions. It is used to evokeIt’ssympathy, make others feel what author wants them to feel. A common use is drawing pity, anger.from the Greek and means both "suffering" and "experience". It can be developed by usingmeaningful language. Can be used during the speech visually aids such images and videos, or music,or through storytelling. Other is trying to connect with the audience on a personal level–(EGOTARGETING) audience feel their beliefs and values are being considered, and thereforebecome emotionally involved.

If you don’t quit smoking today, everyone you know, and love will die because of your habit.- Intertwined appeal -> the three appeals are used all at once.

Per esempio, in un annuncio cosmetico. Strategie persuasive del discorso: targeting dell'ego (l'uso di pronomi personali o aggettivi possessivi), umorismo/ironia (usati per creare una discrepanza tra parole e significato, che se compresa dal pubblico crea un legame più forte)/satira/sarcasmo (come spesso usato da Donald Trump); scelte lessicali come linguaggio valutativo, aggettivi superlativi, esagerazioni, iperboli, avverbi di modo o parole emotive che aumentano sia il pathos che l'ethos; figure retoriche come metaforizzazione e linguaggio figurato; ripetizione, anafora, allitterazioni; contrasti che possono essere impliciti o espliciti. - La metaforizzazione è la strategia più ampiamente utilizzata. Le metafore dicono in modo conciso ciò che in altre parole avrebbe bisogno di descrizioni lunghe o difficili parafrasi per avere più impatto sul pubblico in meno tempo. Offrono una trasparenza terminologica e concisione, e sfruttano immagini del mondo reale per rappresentare concetti difficili da comprendere.

Explain - Imperative verbs mainly employed in websites, leaflets, advertisements. The purpose is not to give orders but to urge readers to avail themselves of what is offered.

Three-part lists and parallelism are very common, as they create a pleasing rhythm and are easy to remember. It can be following the structure "a, b and c". For example, "I will build new partnerships to defeat the threats of the 21st century: terrorism and nuclear proliferation; poverty and genocide; climate change and disease". The three-part list is a particular form of parallelism because the parallel syntactic structure encourages a reader to consider the entities in the same way with the same importance.

Case Study: Political Texts

1. Democratic presidential candidate acceptance speech by Barack Obama (28 August 2008): logos elements, ethos - Clearly the alliteration of "I" elements. "I will end... responsibly, I will rebuild, renew, build, restore." Obama wants to give an

Idea of him as responsible, he wants people to trust him, he uses an adve