Modal hedges in para-pharmaceutical product instructions: some examples from English and Serbian

[EN] The paper investigates how modal hedges (Coates 1983) understood as expressions of procedural meaning , i.e. expressions which instruct the addressee/reader how to process the propositional content of an utterance/statement (Watts 2004) are used in product descriptions, advertisements and consumer instructions leaflets for a number of products belonging to the Consumer Health Care category for the purposes of complying with consumer protection laws on the one hand and serving as an implicit disclaimer of manufacturer’s responsibility on the other. The analysis is carried out contrastively for two languages, English and Serbian. The results obtained are discussed and viewed as a matter of cultural variety and difference, especially taking into consideration the fact that consumer protection laws seem to be equally strict in US, UK and Commonwealth, Europe and Serbia.

Change in modal parameters of cracked single-edge notched plain concrete Beams

[EN]The aim of this work is looking into the possibility of capturing the change in the modal properties (natural frequencies, modal shapes and modal damping ratio) of plain concrete elements due to the presence of cracked areas by using a simple continuum damage zone numerical model.

Non-verbal markers of modality and evidentiality in MarENG

[EN] This article examines a variety of options for expressing speaker and writer stance in a subcorpus of MarENG, a maritime English learning tool sponsored by the EU (35,041 words). Non-verbal markers related to key areas of modal expression are presented; (1)epistemic adverbs and adverbial expressions, (2) epistemic adjectives, (3) deontic adjectives, (4) evidential adverbs, (5) evidential adjectives, (6) evidential interpersonal markers, and (7) single adverbials conveying the speaker’s attitudes, feelings or value judgments. The overall aim is to present an overview of how these non-verbal markers operate in this LSP genre.

A contrastive analysis of epistemic modality in scientific English

[ES] This paper investigates the use of epistemic expressions in scientific English. The main aim of this research is to analyse if native speakers of English use epistemic modality in the same way than non-native speakers of English and to detect the most outstanding cognitive implications of this fact. The corpus used in this research contains 50 research papers written by native English speakers and 50 scientific papers written by Spanish researchers who use English to communicate internationally. As epistemic modals are used to indicate the possibility of some piece of knowledge, this paper focuses on epistemic modal verbs in order to detect if native speakers of English and non-native speakers of English communicate modality in the same way, or if there are differences in frequency and use. The results obtained in this analysis indicated that there are differences in the frequency of use of epistemic expressions, even if the intention of the writers is the same.

Eyewear selector

[EN]The widespread availability of portable computing power and inexpensive digital cameras is opening up new possibilities for retailers. One example is in optical shops, where a number of systems exist that facilitate eyeglasses selection. These systems are now more necessary as the market is saturated with an increasingly complex array of lenses, frames, coatings, tints, photochromic and polarizing treatments, etc. Research challenges encompass Computer Vision, Multimedia and Human-Computer Interaction. Cost factors are also of importance for widespread product acceptance. This paper describes a low-cost system that allows the user to visualize di erent spectacle models in live video. The user can also move the spectacles to adjust its position on the face. Experiments show the potential of the system.

Analysis of preferences for freight transport using advanced choice models

Programa de doctorado: Perspectivas científicas sobre el turismo y la dirección de empresas turísticas