Country escapes and designs for living:Christa Wolf, Sarah Kirsch and Judith Hermann

Country escapes and designs for living in the Works of Two Generations of (East) German Women Writers: Christa Wolf’s Sommerstück and Sarah Kirsch’s Allerlei-Rauh as Precursors to Judith Hermann’s Sommerhaus, später

An investigation into the antecedents of prosocial service behaviours : a travel service context

Frontline employee (FLE) attitudes and behaviours during service encounters influence customers’ perceptions of service quality and customer satisfaction. The identification of variables that influence FLEs service behaviours is, therefore, important. Much remains unknown about the factors affecting prosocial service behaviours (PSBs). This thesis answers the following questions: What are the antecedents of PSBs in a travel service setting? It is argued that managerial strategies indirectly influence PSBs via their direct influence on job attitudes. This thesis represents an attempt towards an increased knowledge about the antecedents of PSBs by seeking answers to the question. A conceptual model was developed from the literature. Briefly stated, the hypothesised model proposed that job attitudes mediate the relationship between managerial strategies and the PSBs. In-depth interviews provided initial support for the conceptual model. Structural equation modelling techniques were then used to test these relationships on data from 179 travel service employees. Partial support for the mediational role of job attitudes was found. More specifically, the relationship between professional development and extra-role customer service is mediated by job satisfaction and organisational commitment, but not in-role customer service and cooperation. The managerial strategies influence PSBs directly. Internal communication influences extra- and in-role customer service behaviours positively. The relationship between professional development and the three PSBs constructs is negative. Empowerment influences in-role customer service and cooperative behaviours positively.

“I didn’t mean to steal someone else’s words!”:a forensic linguistic approach to detecting intentional plagiarism

The concept of plagiarism is not uncommonly associated with the concept of intellectual property, both for historical and legal reasons: the approach to the ownership of ‘moral’, nonmaterial goods has evolved to the right to individual property, and consequently a need was raised to establish a legal framework to cope with the infringement of those rights. The solution to plagiarism therefore falls most often under two categories: ethical and legal. On the ethical side, education and intercultural studies have addressed plagiarism critically, not only as a means to improve academic ethics policies (PlagiarismAdvice.org, 2008), but mainly to demonstrate that if anything the concept of plagiarism is far from being universal (Howard & Robillard, 2008). Even if differently, Howard (1995) and Scollon (1994, 1995) argued, and Angèlil-Carter (2000) and Pecorari (2008) later emphasised that the concept of plagiarism cannot be studied on the grounds that one definition is clearly understandable by everyone. Scollon (1994, 1995), for example, claimed that authorship attribution is particularly a problem in non-native writing in English, and so did Pecorari (2008) in her comprehensive analysis of academic plagiarism. If among higher education students plagiarism is often a problem of literacy, with prior, conflicting social discourses that may interfere with academic discourse, as Angèlil-Carter (2000) demonstrates, we then have to aver that a distinction should be made between intentional and inadvertent plagiarism: plagiarism should be prosecuted when intentional, but if it is part of the learning process and results from the plagiarist’s unfamiliarity with the text or topic it should be considered ‘positive plagiarism’ (Howard, 1995: 796) and hence not an offense. Determining the intention behind the instances of plagiarism therefore determines the nature of the disciplinary action adopted. Unfortunately, in order to demonstrate the intention to deceive and charge students with accusations of plagiarism, teachers necessarily have to position themselves as ‘plagiarism police’, although it has been argued otherwise (Robillard, 2008). Practice demonstrates that in their daily activities teachers will find themselves being required a command of investigative skills and tools that they most often lack. We thus claim that the ‘intention to deceive’ cannot inevitably be dissociated from plagiarism as a legal issue, even if Garner (2009) asserts that generally plagiarism is immoral but not illegal, and Goldstein (2003) makes the same severance. However, these claims, and the claim that only cases of copyright infringement tend to go to court, have recently been challenged, mainly by forensic linguists, who have been actively involved in cases of plagiarism. Turell (2008), for instance, demonstrated that plagiarism is often connoted with an illegal appropriation of ideas. Previously, she (Turell, 2004) had demonstrated by comparison of four translations of Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar to Spanish that the use of linguistic evidence is able to demonstrate instances of plagiarism. This challenge is also reinforced by practice in international organisations, such as the IEEE, to whom plagiarism potentially has ‘severe ethical and legal consequences’ (IEEE, 2006: 57). What plagiarism definitions used by publishers and organisations have in common – and which the academia usually lacks – is their focus on the legal nature. We speculate that this is due to the relation they intentionally establish with copyright laws, whereas in education the focus tends to shift from the legal to the ethical aspects. However, the number of plagiarism cases taken to court is very small, and jurisprudence is still being developed on the topic. In countries within the Civil Law tradition, Turell (2008) claims, (forensic) linguists are seldom called upon as expert witnesses in cases of plagiarism, either because plagiarists are rarely taken to court or because there is little tradition of accepting linguistic evidence. In spite of the investigative and evidential potential of forensic linguistics to demonstrate the plagiarist’s intention or otherwise, this potential is restricted by the ability to identify a text as being suspect of plagiarism. In an era with such a massive textual production, ‘policing’ plagiarism thus becomes an extraordinarily difficult task without the assistance of plagiarism detection systems. Although plagiarism detection has attracted the attention of computer engineers and software developers for years, a lot of research is still needed. Given the investigative nature of academic plagiarism, plagiarism detection has of necessity to consider not only concepts of education and computational linguistics, but also forensic linguistics. Especially, if intended to counter claims of being a ‘simplistic response’ (Robillard & Howard, 2008). In this paper, we use a corpus of essays written by university students who were accused of plagiarism, to demonstrate that a forensic linguistic analysis of improper paraphrasing in suspect texts has the potential to identify and provide evidence of intention. A linguistic analysis of the corpus texts shows that the plagiarist acts on the paradigmatic axis to replace relevant lexical items with a related word from the same semantic field, i.e. a synonym, a subordinate, a superordinate, etc. In other words, relevant lexical items were replaced with related, but not identical, ones. Additionally, the analysis demonstrates that the word order is often changed intentionally to disguise the borrowing. On the other hand, the linguistic analysis of linking and explanatory verbs (i.e. referencing verbs) and prepositions shows that these have the potential to discriminate instances of ‘patchwriting’ and instances of plagiarism. This research demonstrates that the referencing verbs are borrowed from the original in an attempt to construct the new text cohesively when the plagiarism is inadvertent, and that the plagiarist has made an effort to prevent the reader from identifying the text as plagiarism, when it is intentional. In some of these cases, the referencing elements prove being able to identify direct quotations and thus ‘betray’ and denounce plagiarism. Finally, we demonstrate that a forensic linguistic analysis of these verbs is critical to allow detection software to identify them as proper paraphrasing and not – mistakenly and simplistically – as plagiarism.

Materialschlacht für eine andere Ordnung der Dinge:Versuch über Marianne Fritz und ihr Momumentalepos 'Festung'

This article is linked to my major study on the Poetik des Extremen by classifying the monstrous works of Marianne Fritz among a genealogy of extremist writing in German-speaking literature. Her literary project Festung, which represents in all likelihood the most extensive ‘novel’ in Western literary history, is first analysed by looking at the exponential growth of its components from a paperback of 108 pages to the not yet completed novel Naturgemäß, which will most probably comprise 15 volumes, mostly of A4 size and a length that should be equivalent to over 20,000 standard pages. In parallel to the quantitative explosion of form, the article also explores the transgression of traditional narration and Fritz’s typographical innovations of text presentation. Using reproductions of the late facsimile volumes, an exemplary ‘close reading’ of one page from Naturgemäß II is undertaken to demonstrate the enormous density of Festung. Finally, the article seeks to differentiate Fritz’s opus magnum from other out-sized works of literature by focussing on the specific interconnection between the quantitative and stylistic explosion of the form of the novel, which makes it incomparable to the major works of writers such as Robert Musil or Arno Schmidt.

The snakes and ladders of user involvement:moving beyond Arnstein

For 35 years, Arnstein's ladder of citizen participation has been a touchstone for policy makers and practitioners promoting user involvement. This article critically assesses Arnstein's writing in relation to user involvement in health drawing on evidence from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Finland, Sweden and Canada. Arnstein's model, however, by solely emphasizing power, limits effective responses to the challenge of involving users in services and undermines the potential of the user involvement process. Such an emphasis on power assumes that it has a common basis for users, providers and policymakers and ignores the existence of different relevant forms of knowledge and expertise. It also fails to recognise that for some users, participation itself may be a goal. We propose a new model to replace the static image of a ladder and argue that for user involvement to improve health services it must acknowledge the value of the process and the diversity of knowledge and experience of both health professionals and lay people.

Internal market orientation and market/oriented behaviours

Purpose – The purpose of this empirical paper is to investigate internal marketing from a behavioural perspective. The impact of internal marketing behaviours, operationalised as an internal market orientation (IMO), on employees' marketing and other in/role behaviours (IRB) were examined. Design/methodology/approach – Survey data measuring IMO, market orientation and a range of constructs relevant to the nomological network in which they are embedded were collected from the UK retail managers. These were tested to establish their psychometric properties and the conceptual model was analysed using structural equations modelling, employing a partial least squares methodology. Findings – IMO has positive consequences for employees' market/oriented and other IRB. These, in turn, influence marketing success. Research limitations/implications – The paper provides empirical support for the long/held assumption that internal and external marketing are related and that organisations should balance their external focus with some attention to employees. Future research could measure the attitudes and behaviours of managers, employees and customers directly and explore the relationships between them. Practical implications – Firm must ensure that they do not put the needs of their employees second to those of managers and shareholders; managers must develop their listening skills and organisations must become more responsive to the needs of their employees. Originality/value – The paper contributes to the scarce body of empirical support for the role of internal marketing in services organisations. For researchers, this paper legitimises the study of internal marketing as a route to external market success; for managers, the study provides quantifiable evidence that focusing on employees' wants and needs impacts their behaviours towards the market. © 2010, Emerald Group Publishing Limited

Lichtspielkunstwerk und Sprachkunstwerk. Zur Funktion und Rolle des Films im oeuvre von Gerhard Roth:the function and role of film in the oeuvre of Gerhard Roth

This article examines the multi-layered interrelation between Gerhard Roth’s writing and film. It charts the corresponding relationship of his early books to their accompanying television documentaries. The main focus of this essay however is on the film adaptation of Stille Ozean (1980) and Landäufiger Tod (1984), the two major novels in his cycle Archive des Shweigens. Supplemented by a look at the two radically different adaptations of his volume of topographical essays on Vienna called Eine Reise in das Innere von Wien (1991), the article also provides a summary overview of the seven dramas written by Roth for Austrian television in the 1990s, some of which were directed by his son Thomas. Finally Roth's approach to the medium of film is being discussed by drawing on the 59 reviews he published between 1995 and 1997 as a film critic for the Austrian magazine NEWS.

An investigation into formal and functional characteristics of qualifications in legislative writing and its application to English for academic legal purposes.

The present investigation is based on a linguistic analysis of the 'Housing Act 1980' and attempts to examine the role of qualifications in the structuring of the legislative statement. The introductory chapter isolates legislative writing as a "sub-variety “of legal language and provides an overview of the controversies surrounding the way it is written and the problems it poses to its readers. Chapter two emphasizes the limitations of the available work on the description of language-varieties for the analysis of legislative writing and outlines the approach adopted for the present analysis. This chapter also gives some idea of the information-structuring of legislative provisions and establishes qualification as a key element in their textualisation. The next three chapters offer a detailed account of the ten major qualification-types identified in the corpus, concentrating on the surface form they take, the features of legislative statements they textualize and the syntactic positions to which they are generally assigned in the statement of legislative provisions. The emerging hypotheses in these chapters have often been verified through a specialist reaction from a Parliamentary Counsel, largely responsible for the writing of the ‘Housing Act 1980’• The findings suggest useful correlations between a number of qualificational initiators and the various aspects of the legislative statement. They also reveal that many of these qualifications typically occur in those clause-medial syntactic positions which are sparingly used in other specialist discourse, thus creating syntactic discontinuity in the legislative sentence. Such syntactic discontinuities, on the evidence from psycholinguistic experiments reported in chapter six, create special problems in the processing and comprehension of legislative statements. The final chapter converts the main linguistic findings into a series of pedagogical generalizations, offers indications of how this may be applied in EALP situations and concludes with other considerations of possible applications.

The role of analogy in spelling in English primary school children - a partial intervention study

The English writing system is notoriously irregular in its orthography at the phonemic level. It was therefore proposed that focusing beginner-spellers’ attention on sound-letter relations at the sub-syllabic level might improve spelling performance. This hypothesis was tested in Experiments 1 and 2 using a ‘clue word’ paradigm to investigate the effect of analogy teaching intervention / non-intervention on the spelling performance of an experimental group and controls. The results overall showed the intervention to be effective in improving spelling, and this effect to be enduring. Experiment 3 demonstrated a greater application of analogy in spelling, when clue words, which participants used in analogy to spell test words, remained in view during testing. A series of regression analyses, with spelling entered as the criterion variable and age, analogy and phonological plausibility (PP) as predictors, showed both analogy and PP to be highly predictive of spelling. Experiment 4 showed that children could use analogy to improve their spelling, even without intervention, by comparing their performance in spelling words presented in analogous categories or in random lists. Consideration of children’s patterns of analogy use at different points of development showed three age groups to use similar patterns of analogy, but contrasting analogy patterns for spelling different words. This challenges stage theories of analogy use in literacy. Overall the most salient units used in analogy were the rime and, to a slightly lesser degree, the onset-vowel and vowel. Finally, Experiment 5 showed analogy and phonology to be fairly equally influential in spelling, but analogy to be more influential than phonology in reading. Five separate experiments therefore found analogy to be highly influential in spelling. Experiment 5 also considered the role of memory and attention in literacy attainment. The important implications of this research are that analogy, rather than purely phonics-based strategy, is instrumental in correct spelling in English.