Imperative, subjunctive, and the desiderative-appellative space in Spanish

After defining the “enunciative scheme” (sentence type) as a communicative unit, the imperative is characterized as a morphologized modality of appellative kind used when the following conditions occur: appellative meaning, 2nd person, future tense and absence of negation. In Spanish, any variation of any of these requirements determines that the subjunctive is used. We reject the idea that the imperative is a variant of subjunctive specialized in appellative function and that both modes share a desiderative morpheme. Working in this way means attributing to a morphological category of the verb a property that actually corresponds to the enunciative schemes (sentence types). We propose to integrate the imperative and subjunctive in the framework of what we call the “desiderative-appellative space”. This “space” brings together various grammatical or grammaticalized means based on the imperative and the subjunctive. Semantically, it is organized around a component of desirability (action appears as desirable) that, by varying several factors, configures a route that goes from a center (the imperative) to a periphery (the expression of desire).

Una revisión de la Cadena Datos-Información-Conocimiento desde el Pragmatismo de Peirce

La Cadena Datos-Información-Conocimiento (DIC), denominada “Jerarquía de la Información” o “Pirámide del Conocimiento”, es uno de los modelos más importantes en la Gestión de la Información y la Gestión del Conocimiento. Por lo general, la estructuración de la cadena se ha ido definiendo como una arquitectura en la que cada elemento se levanta sobre el elemento inmediatamente inferior; sin embargo no existe un consenso en la definición de los elementos, ni acerca de los procesos que transforman un elemento de un nivel a uno del siguiente nivel. En este artículo se realiza una revisión de la Cadena Datos-Información-Conocimiento examinando las definiciones más relevantes sobre sus elementos y sobre su articulación en la literatura, para sintetizar las acepciones más comunes. Se analizan los elementos de la Cadena DIC desde la semiótica de Peirce; enfoque que nos permite aclarar los significados e identificar las diferencias, las relaciones y los roles que desempeñan en la cadena desde el punto de vista del pragmatismo. Finalmente se propone una definición de la Cadena DIC apoyada en las categorías triádicas de signos y la semiosis ilimitada de Peirce, los niveles de sistemas de signos de Stamper y las metáforas de Zeleny.

University students with disabilities in Universities. A study of their inclusion

Access to higher education has increased among students with disabilities, and universities are adopting different alternatives which must be assessed. The purpose of this study was to identify the situation of a sample of students with disabilities (n=91) who attend a university in Spain, through the design and validation of the “CUNIDIS-d” scale, with satisfactory psychometric properties. The results show the importance of making reasoned curriculum adaptations, adapting teacher training, improving accessibility and involving all the university community. Different proposals were provided which support the social dimension of the EHEA.

"Politica architectonica". El aristotelismo político en el debate político alemán durante la primera edad moderna

Este artículo reconstruye la evolución del debate político alemán durante la primera edad moderna, poniendo atención en particular en la manera en la que tal debate se fue elaborando y transmitiendo dentro de la comunidad de discurso universitaria que lo produjo. El análisis de las características formales y de las modalidades en las que se desarrolló este debate permite demonstrar que el aristotelismo político no fue sólo una doctrina política, sino también, y sobre todo, un código común que más allá de diferencias específicas, caracterizó todas las experiencias universitarias del Sacro Imperio Romano Germánico desde finales del siglo xvi y durante todo el siglo xvii. Las características esenciales de este código se pondrán de relieve en particular a través del caso de los escritos políticos de Iohannes Althusius, en los que la forma y el contenido de su doctrina política terminan coincidiendo.

Assessment of the EEE-4 oral test: a discourse analysis based on complex networks.

With the development of information technology, the theory and methodology of complex network has been introduced to the language research, which transforms the system of language in a complex networks composed of nodes and edges for the quantitative analysis about the language structure. The development of dependency grammar provides theoretical support for the construction of a treebank corpus, making possible a statistic analysis of complex networks. This paper introduces the theory and methodology of the complex network and builds dependency syntactic networks based on the treebank of speeches from the EEE-4 oral test. According to the analysis of the overall characteristics of the networks, including the number of edges, the number of the nodes, the average degree, the average path length, the network centrality and the degree distribution, it aims to find in the networks potential difference and similarity between various grades of speaking performance. Through clustering analysis, this research intends to prove the network parameters’ discriminating feature and provide potential reference for scoring speaking performance.

The emotional structure of the advertising message in radio

Radio advertising is suffering from a remarkable crisis of creativity as it has yet not found its role in a radio model based on voice locution and information genres. This article suggests the need for implementing a peripheral or heuristic strategy to attract and hold listeners’ attention. Within this framework, the narration and scene representation are proposed as suitable persuasion techniques. The objective is to design a useful conceptual tool for an efficient creative conception of narration at the service of certain commercial strategy. First, the concept of narrative persuasion is grounded according to the possibilities of the sound code. Second, the keys of scene representation and commercial strategy (brand, product, advantage, benefit and target) within the sound message are presented. And third, these keys are articulated in a model. This model is pre-tested by means of analyzing eight different case-radio ads.

The State of the Nation Debate as part of the democratic parliamentary ritual: Rajoy and Rubalcaba discourse analysis, 2014

In this article we analyze the Debate on the State of the Nation 2014. The methodology consists in coding the speeches of the prime minister, Mariano Rajoy (PP) and the then opposition leader Alfredo Perez Rubalcaba (PSOE) through extracting word clouds, branched maps and word trees that have shown the most common concepts and premises. This preliminary analysis of two dimensions, quantitative and qualitative, makes it much easier and viable subsequent discourse analysis where we focus on the different types of arguments in the communicative act: claim/solution, circumstantial premises, goal premises, value premises, meansgoal premises, alternative options/addressing alternative options.

The perception of the African-American community through the eyes of the Hispanic media in the U.S.: a critical discourse analysis of the reporting of the death of Michael Brown

In this paper, 36 English and 38 Spanish news articles were selected from English and Spanish newspapers and magazines published in the U.S.A. from August 2014 to November 2014. All articles discuss the death of Michael Brown, the ensuing protests and police investigations. A discourse analysis shows that there are few differences between reporting by the mainstream and the Hispanic media. Like the mainstream media, the Hispanic media adopts a neutral point of view with regard to the African-American minority. However, it presents a negative opinion with regard to the police. It appears that the Hispanic media does not explicitly side with the African-American community, but rather agrees more with the mainstream media’s opinion and is substantially influenced by it.

Who is in charge? An L2 Discourse Intonation Study on Four Prosodic Parameters to Exert the Pragmatic Function of Dominance and Control in the Context of L2 Non-specialist Public Speaking

This paper reports the findings from a study of the learning of English intonation by Spanish speakers within the discourse mode of L2 oral presentation. The purpose of this experiment is, firstly, to compare four prosodic parameters before and after an L2 discourse intonation training programme and, secondly, to confirm whether subjects, after the aforementioned L2 discourse intonation training, are able to match the form of these four prosodic parameters to the discourse-pragmatic function of dominance and control. The study designed the instructions and tasks to create the oral and written corpora and Brazil’s Pronunciation for Advanced Learners of English was adapted for the pedagogical aims of the present study. The learners’ pre- and post-tasks were acoustically analysed and a pre / post- questionnaire design was applied to interpret the acoustic analysis. Results indicate most of the subjects acquired a wider choice of the four prosodic parameters partly due to the prosodically-annotated transcripts that were developed throughout the L2 discourse intonation course. Conversely, qualitative and quantitative data reveal most subjects failed to match the forms to their appropriate pragmatic functions to express dominance and control in an L2 oral presentation.