Linguistics and Philology 11.1
Linguistics and Philology
Vol. 11.1 - 2020

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Table of contents

Parole e percezione. Forme della manipolazione nel mondo antico

p. 8Premessa
Tristano Gargiulo
Article
p. 10Introduzione
Morena Deriu
Article
p. 14I presupposti cognitivi della persuasione nell’Encomio di Elena di Gorgia: analisi semantica e prospettiva testuale
Ignazio Efisio Putzu
Abstract

Starting from the textual analysis of Gorgias’ Encomium of Helen, this paper tries to isolate some essential theoretical assumptions at the levels of psychology of perception, psychology of emotions and, finally, psychology of persuasion. These assumptions seem to necessarily form the foundations of the technical practice of Gorgian rhetoric. In some cases, they contain enlightening problematisations of the cognitive processes which regard perception and attitude change, to such an extent that one can identify actual heuristic issues therein, which are still fully valid in the framework of modern neuro-psychological research.

Article
p. 52La grande manipolatrice. Clitemestra e il dominio del linguaggio nell’Agamennone di Eschilo
Enrico Medda
Abstract

The character of Clytemnestra in Aeschylus’s Agamemnon is a perfect example of the relevance of persuasion and manipulation in tragic theatre, a genre which, since the introduction of the second actor, allowed the representation of contrasts and successful or unsuccessful attempts to overcome an opponent by persuasion. Through an astonishing mastery of many both male and female language forms, Clytemnestra, switching from transgressive usages to the appropriation of traditional feminine clichés, manages to dominate all the characters who face her in the play, and in particular Agamemnon, who is beguiled to the point that he enters his own house in a way that could give rise to human blame and divine φθόνος. After the murder, Clytemnestra also shows her skill in controlling different genres of male language in order to tackle the Chorus’s attempt to bring her to justice. Eventually, the murderer cunningly presents herself as a member of the Atreid family who had been hurt by an adverse daimon, in order to escape the hostility of the daimon itself.

Article
p. 65La figura di Cassandra sulla scena tragica di V secolo: le testimonianze dell’Agamennone e delle Troiane
Cristiana Melidone
Abstract

In both Aeschylus’ Agamemnon and Euripides’ Trojan Women, Cassandra plays the role of tragic heroine, subjected to Apollo’s manipulation, aware of the past and the present of the house of Atreus and able to predict the future; but on stage the people she speaks with do not seem to understand her predictions and are not persuaded by her words. The aim of the paper is to focus on the main features of the tragic character of Cassandra in Aeschylus and Euripides and to investigate the levels of manipulation and communication.

Article
p. 75I discorsi di Mandodarī e Draupadī: locuzioni retoriche a confronto
Diletta Falqui
Abstract

In the Indian epic, oratory is held in high regard and is a characteristic of prominent male characters. The present paper focuses on Draupadī and Mandodarī who share the qualities of loyalty and devotion to their spouses (pativratā), but differ in that one is bound to a conquering hero, the other to an antihero. Both of them are the protagonists of an episode of intense narrative pathos, when they exhort and/or admonish their respective spouses to act or for not having acted in a specific manner (MBh 3.28-33; R [G] 6.33; R [B] 6.99). A few lines from the Rāmāyaṇa depicting Mandodarī scolding the deceased Rāvaṇa, expunged from the Baroda edition but partly preserved in Gorresio, have proved useful for comparisons with Draupadī’s speech to Yudhiṣṭhira from the third book of the Mahābhārata. To the best of my knowledge, no attempt has been made to perform an exhaustive comparison of the two protagonists’ dialectics or even these selected passages. Therefore, the objective of the present research is to analyse some of the rhetorical-stylistic strategies employed in the literary representation of Mandodarī and Draupadī.

Article
p. 85I paradigmi mitici nell’agone delle Nuvole di Aristofane: tra distorsioni retoriche e percezione del pubblico
Maria Elena Panebianco
Abstract

The article focuses on the mythical paradeigmata in the agon in Clouds. The Worse Speech’s argument relies on mythical paradeigmata, but these are delivered in a clearly manipulated form that affects narrative, aims and contexts of application of the myths. Such a manipulation creates a distance between the Worse Speech’s mythical paradeigmata and the pre-existing versions of the same myths. My suggestion is that the distance is acknowledged by the audience, more or less consciously, and that it is precisely through this distance that the message of the drama – the dangers connected to sophistic rhetoric – is conveyed to the audience. This is even more significant with regard to that sector of the audience who did not have the cultural means to detect and appreciate the clever logic and linguistic subtleties deployed by the Worse Speech, but who were familiar with the uses of mythical paradeigmata thanks to literary and dramatic memory.

Article
p. 95Πυθαγορισμοί e retorica: il trattamento dei filosofi pitagorici in due frammenti comici di IV secolo a.C. (Cratin. Iun. fr. 7 e Alex. fr. 223 K.-A.)
Virginia Mastellari
Abstract

Philosophers are among the most typical targets of fourth-century Attic Comedy, especially Pythagoreans who, as several fragments show, were frequently mocked on the Athenian stage. In two comic fragments, however, they are surprisingly mocked for their rhetorical skills and this characterisation does not seem to find confirmation in other sources. The first of these fragments is Cratinus the Younger’s fr. 7 K.-A. (from the comedy Men from Tarentum), where a speaker describes the Pythagoreans’ manipulative ethos. They are said to confuse the ordinary people with ‘antithesis, long-winded sentences, and a high-flown style’. The same rhetorical and manipulative inclination is ascribed to them in Alexis’ fr. 223 K.-A. (from a comedy also entitled Men from Tarentum). The present paper aims at analysing these two comic fragments in the context of Athenian comic production and the origin of the idea about the Pythagoreans’ interest in rhetoric and manipulation of words. I shall investigate to what extent this comic topos is connected with the Pythagorean sect from Tarentum (after which both comedies are named), or whether this trait is inherited from the stereotypical portrait of philosophers in comedy.

Article
p. 105Platone e gli indovini selvaggi: ragioni e termini di una polemica
Francesco Bertani
Abstract

Plato’s dialogues occasionally testify to the existence of a bunch of mantic wanderers whom the philosopher accuses of savagery. This paper aims to investigate – on the basis of textual clues – the presence of this curious divinatory group throughout the platonic corpus, to examine the rhetorical tools the philosopher employs to describe it and to understand the reasons behind the attitude he adopts towards it.

Article
p. 115Polimorfismo e multifunzionalità del docmio fra teorie metriche e realizzazioni poetiche
Alessio Faedda
Abstract

Dochmiacs have been subjected to multiple views and interpretations not only in the ancient world but also in the most recent modern studies. These involve both analytic identification of the smallest constitutive elements of the metre and comprehensive observations, geared towards recognising a certain autonomy of the sequence in the metrical panorama and supplying it with an ancestor from which it descends. The ancient division between rhythmical and metrical sources seems to be reflected in the metricological interpretations from the 19th century onwards, whose gathering point coincides with the known plaintive and pathetic purpose of the metre. However, this purpose results from a semantic specialisation in ancient theatre, and risks obscuring the intrinsic polysemy of dochmiacs which, through appropriate observations on literary texts, increases their variability in the perception of both audience and analysts.

Article
p. 124On the Course of Sage Agastya (Canopus). A Literary Study of Bhatsahitā’s Twelfth Chapter
Ariadna Matyszkiewicz
Abstract

Varāhamihira’s Sanskrit astrological and divinatory compendium, Bṛhatsaṃhitā (6th century CE), is distinguished for its adaptation of the kāvya style and aesthetics to several divinatory prognostications. Accordingly, the entire work may be classified as kāvyaśāstra, a scholarly treatise that incorporates elements of poetry. The uniqueness of its twelfth chapter, Agastyacārādhyāyaḥ ‘On the course of sage Agastya’ lies in the fact that the astrologer fashions it into a deliberate display of his poetic proficiency. In this chapter, the practical instructions concerning the observation and divinatory import of the star Agastya (Canopus) merge with poetic stanzas meant to demonstrate Varāhamihira’s acquaintance with various constituents of the kāvya style. The first aim of this study is to specify the poetic devices employed in the chapter, including a variety of classical Sanskrit metres, canonical themes, figures of speech, plot construction and intertextual references. The second aim is to recognise the purpose and significance of the chapter within the context of the entire work.

Article
p. 134Manipolazioni di un mito: Prometeo tra antichi e moderni
Maria Pia Pattoni
Abstract

Connected with the discovery of fire and the beginning of the civilisation process, Prometheus is one of the founding myths of Western culture. The extraordinary versatility of this mythical figure, which in the history of reception has produced divergent and sometimes antipodal interpretations, can already be found in the most ancient literary texts, which in turn have inspired a lengthy series of new adaptations. The article examines some of the most significant manipulations of this myth from antiquity to the contemporary age.

Article
p. 154Vizi e virtù della manipolazione. Tutto quello che si può fare nel II secolo d.C. (e oltre) secondo Luciano di Samosata
Alberto Camerotto
Abstract

In Lucian’s works everything is experimentation and manipulation of every shape and every material. This is explained in a series of programmatic works and is practiced everywhere. Then, more than a thousand years later, Lucian’s experiments – as we know – become a model for the birth of European literature. And even today we do not understand everything. We try to understand by rereading the Prometheus es in verbis and other concrete experiments between literary manipulation and satire. With materials of all sorts, even the most embarrassing, by mixing literature and life, myth and present, Lucian can do anything: the author can even demolish certainties, beliefs and superstitions. He can overturn and unmask prestige, excellence and success with all their mystification.

Article
p. 168Intertestualità ed esegesi in un commentatore tardoantico al Somnium
Mariarosa Pau
Abstract

The Carthaginis rhetor Eulogius (Aug. De cura pro mortuis gerenda, CSEL XII 642.12-13) devoted himself, probably between 388 and 420, to the writing of a libellus, entitled Disputatio de Somnio Scipionis, commissioned by an unknown consularis provinciae Byzacenae named Superius, vir clarissimus atque sublimis as well as doctissimus. The treaty of the orator almae Karthaginis Favonius takes the form of a quite refined dissertation, elaborating an exegesis of a learned nature and of a philosophical-didactic structure, which represents, in order of importance, the second Late Antique commentary to the Somnium. It appears to be connected with Macrobius’ much more extensive Commentarii Libri Duo by philological and exegetical evidence that makes the work of Augustine’s disciple an extremely interesting source not only as far as the indirect tradition of the Somnium is concerned, but also with regard to the Virgilian vein of Late Antique Neoplatonic exegesis. Thus, the Disputatio de Somnio Scipionis proves itself worthy of consideration both in the context of the widespread coeval exegetical tendency of Neoplatonic matrix, as well as in the mannerist recovery of the main motifs of Ciceronian rhetoric.

Article
p. 177Questioni di catabasi: Omero, Virgilio e Dante
Francesca Benedetta Capobianco
Abstract

Otherworldly journeys represent the repeated theme of some of the greatest masterpieces of Western literary history. From the Odyssey to Aeneid until Dante’s Comedy, the infernal katabasis adopted significant roles and meanings, with different kinds of interpretation. Dante’s Comedy, of course, takes the subject of representation from the literary antecedents, but it changes expressive forms, conferring on the human being’s journey in the underworld a degree of likelihood and dramatic force that is as alien to the Odyssey as it is to the Aeneid. The present work thus aims to answer a fundamental question, that is if, and eventually in what terms, we can talk of a manipulation of the katabasis theme by Dante or whether, the repetition of some issues already present in the Odyssey, and especially in the Aeneid, is instead the fruit of an attempt to provide a new meaning in the wake of a natural and spontaneous process of inculturation, which Dante, a profoundly mediaeval mind, could certainly not avoid.

Article
p. 185Fra antico e moderno: Leopardi, Stratone di Lampsaco e i Moralisti greci
Aretina Bellizzi
Abstract

In the Autumn of 1825 Leopardi writes his Frammento apocrifo di Stratone da Lampsaco. The text would only be published in 1845 in the posthumous edition of Leopardi’s Opere (Florence, Le Monnier). The fragment was composed about a year after the Cantico del Gallo silvestre, which concluded the manuscript of 1824, and recovers its fictitious frame (an allegedly found manuscript), turning the conclusion of the Operette from poetica to filosofica. The inspiration behind the choice of Strato is identified in Bayle’s Dictionnaire (in the entry for Spinoza Theophrastus’ ‘physicist’ pupil is considered as a possible precursor of the modern philosopher). However, a close examination of all possible sources does not suffice to explain the more ambitious undertaking carried out by Leopardi who, in those months, appears to be looking for a connection between ancient testimonies (Cicero, Diogenes Laertius, Plutarch) and modern reinterpretations, especially eighteenth-century ones, of Stratonian materialism. In examining the operetta’s Preambolo, the essay aims to investigate the connection between the unfinished project of the Moralisti greci and the Frammento, whilst documenting Leopardi’s tendency towards an instrumental interpretation of classical texts.

Article
p. 194Nuove prospettive ecdotiche per la retorica demostenica
Lorenzo Sardone
Abstract

To a large extent, the orations included in the Demosthenicum corpus consist of real deliberative or judicial discourses. The most famous of these were intended to persuade the public (boule, ecclesia, courts) to pursue the battle that will be the leitmotiv of Demosthenes’ life: a strenuous and desperate defence of Athenian freedom, against Philip II of Macedonia. His failure as a politician, however, did not affect his success as a speaker. The Demosthenic style, with its incredible variatio, immediately became object of study and imitation. However, when the Demosthenic oratory conquered the ancient school, its intrinsic variety was not always appreciated. Numerous papyri, that bear passages of his orations, show the high frequency of emendations, in order to revise and normalise the text. The constitutio textus, therefore, poses many difficulties to modern publishers, obliged to choose between numerous, equivalent, textual variants. Many ancient manuscripts reveal how principles such as lectio brevior always intended as lectio difficilior cannot be applied uncritically to real, not fictitious, oratory.

Article
p. 202Le narrazioni del conflitto greco-persiano tra panellenismo e manipolazione politica
Luca Giorgiutti
Abstract

The Second Persian War, despite the stereotypical image that celebrated it as a Pan-Hellenic feat, deeply divided the Greek world, as evidenced by the various lists of victors and by Herodotus: few poleis, in fact, took part in the defensive alliance, and only three or four of these played a decisive role. Thus, the victory generated, more than real unity, an ideological vision of unity: the narratives of Pan-Hellenic concord against the enemy, inserted within an ideal line of confrontation between Greeks and barbarians, which at least dated back to the Trojan War, spread the idea that the affirmation of community ties could also pass through the celebration of a common enterprise, pushing all Greeks, including those who had not taken part in the war, to associate their names with those of the victors. This work then proposes to reconsider a series of texts, from Simonides’ elegy on Plataea to the self-celebrating epigrams mentioned in Plutarch’s De Herodoti malignitate, which shed light on the ways in which some Greek communities presented their efforts during the conflict, in order to claim their membership in the Greeks’ ideal community or the honour of having done more and better than others for the common cause.

Article
p. 212Cleone πιθανώτατος: una nota a Thuc. III 37-40
Maria Lavinia Porceddu
Abstract

Before reporting the famous debate regarding the punishment to be inflicted on the mutinous population of Mytilene, Thucydides describes the demagogue Cleon as being the most successful politician of his age in persuading the demos. The opening section of Cleon’s speech is a particularly significant example of devices and stratagems used to direct the decisional process of the assembly. Through an elaborate linguistic architecture, the demagogue deliberately manipulates the lexicon of the political rhetoric. Operating what at first sight seems to be a paradoxical synthesis of opposite semantics, Cleon reverses ancient topoi and traditional connotations, assigning values, skills and qualities to the demos that are normally only attributed to the élite. By analysing the terminology he uses, the goal of this work is to demonstrate how the previous rhetorical and ideological uses of this expressive form can be traced back to the democratic propaganda of the age of Pericles.

Article
p. 222Emergenza e manipolazione dell’opinione pubblica nelle Ecclesiazuse di Aristofane. Salvare Atene da cosa?
Flavia Usai
Abstract

This paper intends to provide new evidence to support the thesis which recognises a primary interest in the topicality of Athens in Aristophanes’ last comic production. It therefore focuses on the case of Ecclesiazusae and on the rhetoric of soteria. Starting from 411 BCE, the slogan of soteria tes poleos became recurrent in Athenian political language: the opposing factions tried to lay claim to the theme of salvation, ascribing the ability to overcome the emergency to their political manifesto. This opposition is evident in Ecclesiazusae, where Aristophanes does not simply recall traumatic events but uses the case of soteria in a continuous dialogue between Athens’ past and the present. The numerous occurrences of the concept do not seem fortuitous in 392/391, during a new war between Athens and Sparta. The aim of this paper is to prove that the references to the Athenian past, to the institutional irregularities and the recovery of the theme of soteria, represented the denunciation of oligarchic manipulation to undermine democratic institutions from within, and also the demagogic action of popular leaders. They even used the slogan of salvation to impose their political vision: in conclusion, this was the real emergency from which the polis had to be saved.

Article
p. 231Comandi straordinari e manipolazione dell’emergenza nel dibattito politico tra il 59 e il 49 a.C.
Francesca Cau
Abstract

During the 1st century BCE the granting of extraordinary commands was – as it had been in the previous period – the subject of heated and sometimes violent debate. The opponents of these measures used to warn against the risks deriving from the novitas of the law and from the centralisation of great power in the hands of single individuals. This particular aspect has already been highlighted in many studies on the subject; this article intends rather to demonstrate that, between 59 and 49, the generals who had received such commands were often accused of having exploited the emergency theme in order to obtain or keep their power. An excursus among the extraordinary grants of this decade will therefore display the modalities, timing and purposes by which the opposition made use of this argument. At the same time, I will try to clarify whether these charges corresponded to the truth or if they were themselves the result of manipulation. Eventually, the analysis of available data will show that the perception of danger and crisis was variously instrumentalised for personal purposes by all the parties involved.

Article
p. 241Manipolazioni dei fatti nel racconto della battaglia contro i Nervi (Caes. BGall. II 15-28): un’analisi retorica
Giacomo Amilcare Mario Ranzani
Abstract

Manipulations and alterations of facts are embedded in the artful narrative of Julius Caesar’s de bello Gallico. The modifications of reality are developed according to the author’s self-praising and apologetic aim. The stylistic organisation supports such alterations through an artful use of syntactic dispositions, figures of speech, sound figures and rhetorical instruments. This paper analyses the author’s manipulations in his account of the expedition against the Nervi (BGall. II 15-28). This section results deeply altered to make Caesar appear in a favourable way in the eyes of the reader. A close reading and a rhetorical analysis of chapters 18-25 show the narrative strategies and rhetorical instruments Caesar employed to alter the account of events. The investigation of the ethnographical digression (II 15) shows how the military skills of the Nervi are exaggerated to provide a justification for the difficulties faced during the battle; the amplification of the risks caused by the forests and the fortifications in the battlefield (II 16-17) goes in the same direction. An inter- and intra-textual analysis finally reveals how the account of the fight (II 19-28) is built up according to Caesar’s self-aggrandising aim.

Article
p. 251Καθαρς κατ τν νόμον. Il μίασμα nelle leggi draconiane sull’omicidio tra V e IV secolo a.C.
Maria Antonietta Dettori
Abstract

It should not be surprising to see the relationship between the irrational idea of μίασμα and the law of homicide: Attic law was the product of the synergy between law and the sacred. For this reason, at least until the beginning of the classical age, one cannot speak of the manipulation of a belief but, at most, of its use in relation to a specific perception of the crime. The aim of this contribution is to show that in the fourth century, a total overlap was reached between the principle of μίασμα and the system of guilt and punishment: the ‘impure’ μιαρός is only the murderer who committed the crime in circumstances not covered by the law; in all other cases, the misdoer retains the condition of purity (καθαρός). Considering that cases of ‘justified homicide’ φόνος δίκαιος are often closely linked to the urgency of saving the city, preserving it from all those situations that could undermine its balance, in this perspective the μίασμα could be understood as a functional element for this purpose, a manipulated concept for coercive and social purposes.

Article
p. 260Come smascherare un testamento manipolato? Il ricorso agli elementi circostanziali nelle orazioni giudiziarie di Iseo
Valeria Muroni
Abstract

In fourth-century Athens, a man without legitimate male issue can appoint an heir through an inter vivos adoption or a post mortem will. If the former method guarantees a certain reliability thanks to the public recognition of the adopted, the latter suffers from a greater weakness since it was usually kept secret until the man’s death. Whenever there is any suspicion that provisions have been altered and do not match the original wishes of the deceased, Isaios, an expert logographer in inheritance lawsuits, relies on rhetorical argumentation to detect whether the document has indeed undergone manipulation and to reconstruct the most plausible context of facts. In defence of his client, the speaker dismantles the claims of other dubious aspirants for the inheritance, by verifying compliance with legal clauses in the drawing up of the will and by evaluating potential falsification or downright forgery during its transmission. It would therefore be reductive to consider Isaios’ techne exclusively as a tool intended to gain favour with the judges; instead, his rhetorical means can represent a useful strategy to unmask any bluffs and to offer the most likely reconstruction of past events.

Article
p. 270 Strategie retoriche di persuasione e manipolazione dei giudici: il ragionamento per eikos nelle orazioni XII e XVI del corpus Lysiacum
Barbara Ester Vacca
Abstract

This work focuses on how Lysias exploited the eikos argument in two of his speeches pronounced in trials of a political nature. This rhetorical device can be configured both as a heuristic tool, capable of reconstructing a truth that jurors could not understand, and as an element that appeals to a sphere of values and a model of conduct shared by the members of the same community. In accordance with these premises, I will first analyse how Lysias, in speech XII, made his accusation against Eratosthenes particularly convincing and moving by appealing to the eikos in order to showcase a model of conduct to the judges, to be followed by those who wanted to appear good citizens and defenders of democratic values. Secondly, I will examine how Lysias built a masterful defence of Manthiteus in the XVI speech, putting the focus mostly on the demonstration of the improbability of the accusations rather than on their refutation.

Article
p. 281‘Show, Don’t Tell’: How to Make Jurors Angry as a Young Athenian Prosecutor
Joseph Whitchurch
Abstract

It is now well established that direct anger (ὀργή) appeals were a common feature of public prosecution speeches at classical Athens. However, there are a small number of speeches which depart from this norm and invite questions as to whether the evocation of dicastic anger was an essential goal or simply a popular strategic option. This paper explores the implications of the former possibility by focusing on one speech in particular, pseudo-Demosthenes’ Against Theocrines. It argues that the prosecutor’s youth is the primary reason behind his abandoning of anger appeals. He chooses, instead, to prioritise ensuring that his character conforms to the expectations of the jurors, including the avoidance of instruction as to what ought to make them angry. Though they are not told to be angry, the jurors are nevertheless shown what has made them angry in the past – the maltreatment of the young and vulnerable through the manipulation of public-serving citizens such as themselves – while the speaker’s presentation of himself as a victim of such treatment serves as the necessary provocation.

Article
p. 290Manipolare il passato, prefigurare il futuro: esempi storici, emozioni e deliberazione nell’oratoria attica
Giulia Maltagliati
Abstract

This article investigates the relationship between paradeigmata, persuasion, and emotions in fourth-century deliberative oratory. It argues that symbouleutic speakers seek to counteract or accentuate their audiences’ fears for the future by strategically manipulating past events. Contemporary research on the operation of historical analogies has argued that the recollection of collective memories helps to imagine future scenarios. In a debate about a potential war or a discussion about the most effective strategies for facing a new enemy, arguments from historical examples can encourage the imagination or anticipation of positive or negative outcomes. By evoking past memories, speakers thus seek to generate fear or hope in their audiences and therefore persuade them to accept specific political proposals.

Article
p. 299Manipolazione e flessibilità nelle allusioni storiche delle orazioni di Cicerone
Giacomo Bellini
Abstract

The summoning of the past plays a paramount role in the communicative strategies of the Ancient period and especially of Ancient Rome, whose political and cultural system is first and foremost shaped by the customs and traditions inherited from previous societies. Cicero’s work is qualitatively and quantitatively pivotal for investigating the communicative manipulation of the past. The present paper first describes two specific instances of the manipulation of the past in Cicero’s speeches. It then goes on to interpret these instances of manipulation under the light of the political and intellectual portrait of the author. In particular, the paper spotlights the relationship inherent in Cicero’s public speaking between the imitation of the role models and the adaptation of thoughts and actions to the needs of public life.

Article
p. 309Un confronto tra storiografia e retorica. La prospettiva della declamazione di carattere storico
Laura D’Ascanio
Abstract

This article explores the intricate and delicate relationship between manipulation and communication through the examination of declamatory production, a privileged observation point for understanding – during the persuasive process – both the delivery of speeches and audience’s perception. In fact, declamation as a scholastic exercise was an integral part of rhetorical apprenticeship, capable of setting a young man on the road to both a legal and political career. Furthermore, an in-depth study of the processes of manipulation is carried out, thanks to the analysis and comparison between declamations based on historical figures or events and historiography itself, used as a source by declaimers. During their declamations, rhetoricians rehash historical subjects with ease in order to develop fluent discourses. Therefore, several examples, predominantly in the Greek language, show the wide variety of manipulation phenomena according to different purposes and situations.

Article

Studies

p. 319Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire: A review of a language learning styles survey
Javier Domínguez Pelegrín
Abstract

This paper presents a critical review about the most widely used self-report for measuring learning styles in the field of language teaching: the Perceptual Learning Style Preference Questionnaire (PLSPQ), by Joy M. Reid (1987). The following issues have been addressed: 1) the description of the questionnaire, 2) its elaboration process, 3) its theoretical foundations, 4) its dissemination in the scientific community, 5) the translated versions, 6) the research fields in which it has been, used and 7) an analysis of its validity and reliability. The review is based on a corpus of 65 works that have used the PLSPQ. The main aim of this review is to provide data on the validity and reliability of the PLSPQ. In this regard, among the conclusions drawn from the review is the fact that the PLSPQ is presented as an instrument with no consistent levels of validity and reliability and therefore in need of profound improvement in this regard or, if not, its use is discouraged.

Article
p. 336De l’usage et du recyclage du joual, langue des écrivains «chiffonniers» de la Révolution tranquille
Annick Farina
Abstract

This article looks at the evolution of the commentary on the spoken French of Quebec and the dispute it has provoked, but only with regard to the involvement of the authors who first made it the subject of nationalist claims, and who were later called ‘écrivains joualisants’ (writers of Joual, name that was given to the French sociolect of the Québécois working class). It examines a body of critical essays, interviews, poems, novels and preliminary speeches by the writers of the Quiet Revolution (André Major, Michel Tremblay, Gaston Miron, Jacques Ferron, Gerald Godin) and the Quebec press of the same period (1960s), in which the authors speak about their use of Joual. I attempt to retrace the meaning that was given to Joual speech and its literary use during and after the Quiet Revolution, as well as its recovery by certain Quebec linguists in the public debate.

Article
p. 346Idiomatische Phraseme am Beispiel von Wahlkampf-Posts deutscher politischer Parteien
Ilaria Meloni
Abstract

Political discourse in its various forms and expressions is characterised by the use of phrasemes, including slogans, proverbs, quotations, etc. It also features the so-called «emologismi» (cf. Antonelli 2017: 6), that is to say words, phrases and formulae that function as «emoticons» aiming to impress voters by focusing attention on the emotional aspects of the discourse. Moreover, in the multimedia age, posts published on social media become an efficient and powerful medium used by political parties to present and support their ideas in an attempt to appeal to voters and hold their attention.
The corpus-based analysis focuses on idiomatic phrasemes, their semantic and pragmatic characteristics as well as on some functions they perform in such election campaign posts. Because of the immediacy and intelligibility of these phrases, they can give emphasis to the text or provide a concise explanation of a passage. In addition, they can also help to negatively connote a political opponent, contribute to the self-presentation of politicians, or – not least – to favour their contact with the voters. In particular the modification of idioms plays furthermore an important role (Elspaß 2007: 288) thanks to their metaphorical features as well as their expressive potential.
The analysis is carried out on a corpus consisting of the posts of some German political parties on the occasion of the federal elections on 24th September 2017.

Article
p. 361Semántica insular: corpus y archipiélagos léxicos
Ignacio Arroyo Hernández
Abstract

By examining the occurrences of a lexical item in a representative corpus it is possible to delineate the mental model of the underlying concept shared by an epistemic community (Van Dijk 2016). This socio-cognitive study uses the tools offered by the Sketch Engine platform to describe the collocational patterns of the Spanish term isla and its Italian equivalent isola in two large corpora. The analysis of the semantic preferences and the perceived semantic prosody suggests an insular narrative, highly shared in both languages, in which the island is represented with laudatory overtones, as a desirable space marked by the beauty and suggestion and, at the same time, by vulnerability.

Article
 

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