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Silvia CAVALIERI

Professore Associato
Dipartimento di Studi Linguistici e Culturali

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Pubblicazioni

2023 - On the verge between Ancient and Modern Times. A linguistic analysis of Urban Exploration practices [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Corrizzato, Sara; Franceschi, Valeria
abstract

2022 - "Due to Heightened Risk": Qualifying Risk in the Debate over Covid-19 [Articolo su rivista]
Bondi, Marina; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

Our paper presents an analysis of the conceptualisation and framing of ‘risk’ in the Covid-19 pandemic. We investigate all occurrences of risk-based vocabulary in two corpora dealing with the spread and the political/social/economic consequences of Covid19 from February 2020 to February 2021 (i.e. the InterDiplo Covid-19 corpus and the CORD-19 corpus). We apply a mixed-method approach to show how the concept of ‘risk’ is lexically qualified in the public communication of a hot issue such as the pandemic. Therefore, after a first recognition of all related expressions of the nominal realization of “risk” in the worldlists of the two corpora, we investigate their concordances to find typical collocations and phraseology used to qualify risk in Covid-19 epidemic. Our results show a clear tendency towards a negative thematisation of “risk” which is characterized by patterns highlighting uncertainty and fear in the fight against a disease spreading on an unprecedented scale and posing total threats that not only involve individuals but affect humanity globally. The focus on the phraseology around the lexical elements helps reconstruct communicative functions and approaches that characterize the two discursive contexts.

2022 - The Research-Practice Interface in ESP and the Challenges for Linguists in the Digital Era: The Case of the InterDiplo Corpus [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Corrizzato, Sara; Facchinetti, Roberta
abstract

Research on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) has undoubtedly benefited from the new advances brought by digitalization and by the use of corpus linguistics tools (Nesi 2013). As a consequence, the role of the linguist has changed considerably in the last decades to embrace new research methodologies emerging from the IT field. Linguistic data can now be combined, annotated, mined and visualized using high-powered computing; moreover, technologization and digitalization have made it possible to make large amount of textual data accessible through various channels in a variety of fields, some of which are still largely unexplored. Bearing this in mind, the present paper illustrates a project currently under development at the University of Verona (Italy) which focusses on the language of diplomats in interviews; so far, this field has received little attention, also on account of the limited number of spoken data focussing on such topic. To overcome this issue, we have developed the InterDiplo Corpus, an ESP corpus including broadcast interviews and debates, where diplomats and international operators are interviewed in English by journalists who do not share the same lingua-cultural background. In the development and analysis of the corpus special attention is dedicated to the fundamental definition of structural mark-up and part of speech annotation. Indeed, as the examples provided by our case study will illustrate, to develop a tagset allowing linguistic analysis from different perspectives, current linguists need to adequately combine computational competence and linguistic knowhow, as well as to be aware of the evolving face of English.  Overall, the balance between technological potentialities and the experience of ESP researchers will allow for specialized corpora that may produce significant linguistic results for their compilers though leaving ample room for free initiative in further analyses from the wider research community.

2022 - The dark past of slavery in American plantation houses: website promotion and perceptions of visitors in Tripadvisor reviews [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Corrizzato, Sara; Franceschi, Valeria
abstract

The visual and linguistic representations of tourism destinations for promotional aims may be affected by their primary function of acquiring new visitors; for this reason, they are not always “value-free expressions of a place’s identity” (Pritchard & Morgan, 2001, p. 177). The concept of dark tourism seems to perfectly mirror the connection between terminological choices and culturally-bound constraints. It has been acknowledged that several dark tourism sites tend to valorise (or hide) events associated with tragedy and death, attracting tourists’ interest for their (non)macabre details at the expense of historical objectivity. This is the case of plantation houses in the US, whose narrative on slavery has often been “whitewashed” and minimized (e.g., Harnay, 2022; Butler, 2001; Eichstedt & Small, 2002). This study aims at investigating how visitors to popular plantation destinations in the US perceive and evaluate the presentation of the experience of slavery in these sites vis-à-vis what is presented on the plantation websites. The analysis is therefore twofold: first, a qualitative multimodal study of the content included in the websites of the plantations will shed light on whether the websites include information on the role of slave labour in the plantations, and secondly, a corpus-assisted investigation of the visitors’ reviews posted on TripAdvisor will attempt to clarify how visitors perceive the plantations as a tourist location, and the importance they place on receiving honest information about the brutality of slavery during their visits. The mixed-methods approach has allowed researchers to delve into this phenomenon from two opposite, but intertwined, perspectives: one driven by experts officially promoting the visit through the websites and the other offered by visitors sharing their personal experiences and feelings.

2022 - “But you think they’re qualifed I assume”: a comparative analysis of hypothetical questions in the InterDiplo Covid-19 Corpus [Articolo su rivista]
Corrizzato, Sara; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

Hypothetical questions are a category of conditional questions that manipulate the representation of causal relations and reinforce the persuasiveness of the message. The speaker opts for an assumed truth with the purpose of indirectly obtaining interlocutors’ personal points of views avoiding direct confict-related situations. In this contribution, we focus on the use of hypothetical questions in media interviews in which diplomats and experts within the sector are asked about the pandemic situation. Specifcally, we examine similarities and diferences in the type and function of hypothetical requests posed by western and eastern journalists to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the linguistic design of HQs deployed in media discourse involving diplomats? 2) What discourse-pragmatic functions do HQs serve in those interviews? The comparative study is carried out on the InterDiploCovid 19 corpus (Facchinetti, Cavalieri & Corrizzato 2021), a collection of media interviews in which interviewees are interviewed in English on the spread and the socio-economic consequences of Covid19. We adopt a corpus-assisted discourse analysis focusing on a selection of markers and structures (but/and/what if; assuming (that); let’s assume; had + inversion) often associated with hypothetical questions and investigating the diferent functions as to their context of use. As data demonstrate, journalists tend to ask HQs to formulate conjectures and create scenarios functional to the line of questioning of the interviewer. Both western and * The article has been jointly planned by the two authors: Sara Corrizzato has dealt with sections 1, 3 (3.1), while Silvia Cavalieri with sections 2, 3 (3.2), 4. Silvia Cavalieri and Sara Corrizzato 132 eastern journalists seem to prefer ‘confrm’ HQs making a more extensive recourse to leading questioning strategies.

2022 - “Visit our Ancient Factories and Book your Tour”: Analysing the Online Promotional Discourse of Italian Enogastronomic Tours [Articolo su rivista]
Sara, Corrizzato; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

Enogastronomic tourism refers to clients’ specific enthusiasm for visiting the area in which a product is made so that they can taste and buy at the source. This form of tourism has indeed become highly popular in Italy too, developing in several branches of the agri-food sector. As a result, a considerable number of Italian wine, vinegar and/or cheese producers are offering their (prospective) foreign clients special tours aimed at tempting them into booking a stay, encouraging them to discover the picturesque natural locations and eventually to buy their top-quality products. With this purpose, the promotional discourse on Italian websites offering such tours must aim “to persuade, lure, woo and seduce” (Dann 1996, 2) visitors, convincing them to discover the Italian countryside and products. Since (re)presenting places and its people is not guided by a “value-free” (Pritchard and Morgan 2001, 177) perspective, but rather by the deliberate intention to promote such destinations, comprehending how discourse is moulded to influence readers’ perception of the local context would seem relevant. This paper aims at investigating the linguistic strategies used in the digital environment to promote enogastronomic tours across Italy by mainly considering how phraseology and units of meaning extend participation framework and open the way for new communicative contexts. Basing the investigation on both quantitative and qualitative methods, the English versions of a corpus of Italian wine, vinegar, beer, pasta, olive oil and cheese websites (around 100) will be taken into consideration in order to analyse how online narrative contributes to promoting this form of tourism as well as to understand how clients’ experience positively coexists with the promotion of local/regional products (Meluzzi and Balsamo 2021).

2022 - “We’re sorry for any inconvenience caused”: Pragmatic aspects of handling complaints in customer-airline company tweets [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Sara, Corrizzato
abstract

– In the relationship between customers and companies, the Web has radically changed the communicative context in which they daily interact, as computer-based technology includes many possibilities to express opinions and to exchange information freely. Therefore, customers have become familiar with leaving feedback through dedicated reviews sites, especially through social media, generating a powerful word of mouth. While complaints are now exposed to a wider audience because thousands of other potential customers can read all the interactions, airline companies have more opportunities to listen to travellers and engage with them. The digital revolution has thus had a profound influence on complaint management, which is becoming a priority in order to win back the complaint and shape the reputation of the company. The present paper offers a discourse-pragmatic analysis of complaints negotiation tweets written by native/non-native travellers and four European airlines companies (British Airways, Lufthansa, Ryanair and EasyJet) in summer 2021. The analysis aims at examining the use of directness/indirectness, politeness strategies and upgraders/downgraders in customer-airline company online interactions. Preliminary findings demonstrate that, depending on the different discursive strategies adopted by customers (from neutral to more confrontational formulations), airline companies apologies tend to mitigate conflicts showing empathy and promoting a traveller-oriented approach.

2021 - Evaluation of e-health applications for paediatric patients with refractory epilepsy and maintained on ketogenic diet [Articolo su rivista]
Costa, ANNA MARIA; Marchio', Maddalena; Bruni, Giulia; Maria Bernabei, Silvia; Cavalieri, Silvia; Bondi, Marina; Biagini, Giuseppe
abstract

E-health technologies improve healthcare quality and disease management. The aim of this study was to develop a ketogenic diet management app as well as a website about this dietary treatment and to evaluate the benefits of giving caregivers access to various web materials designed for paediatric patients with refractory epilepsy. Forty families participated in the questionnaire survey, from January 2016 to March 2016. All caregivers were exposed to paper-based materials about the ketogenic diet, whereas only 22 received the app, called KetApp, and videos produced by dieticians. Caregivers with free access to web materials were more satisfied than the others with the informative material provided by the centre (p 0.001, Mann–Whitney test). Indeed, they showed a better attitude towards treatment, and they became more aware of dietary management in comparison to the control group (p 0.001). Moreover, caregivers provided with web materials were stimulated to pursue the treatment (p = 0.002) and to introduce it to their children and other people (p = 0.001). Additionally, caregivers supplied with web materials were more willing to help other families in choosing the ketogenic diet (p = 0.004). Overall, these findings indicate that web materials are beneficial for caregivers of paediatric patients with refractory epilepsy in our centres. Thus, the use of e-health applications could be a promising tool in the daily aspects of ketogenic diet management, and it is especially of value in the attempt to start or maintain the diet during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic crisis.

2021 - InterDiplo-Covid19 Corpus [Banca dati]
Cavalieri, S.; Corrizzato, S.; Facchinetti, R.
abstract

The InterDiplo-Covid19 Corpus is a corpus of interviews in which diplomats and international operators are interviewed on the spread and the political/social/economic consequences of Covid19, i.e. the InterDiplo-Covid 19 corpus. The interviews were collected from the most famous international broadcasting companies (e.g. BBC, CNN, CGNT, ARIRANG, SKY NEWS UK, FRANCE 24 ENGLISH) or, due to VPN issues, on their YouTube channel where they often publish complete interviews. Diplomats and international operators are interviewed in English by journalists who do not share the same lingua-cultural background as they can be both native and non-native speakers of English. The corpus is in xml format and tagged for metadata, parts of speech, discursive features, questions and answers. The InterDiplo-Covid 19 corpus includes 80 interviews, and it was collected within a year timespan from February 2020 February 2021. It consists of 236,000 tokens and, to have a balanced corpus, the 80 interviews were grouped into 4 sub-corpora: 1) 20 interviews in which the interviewer and the interviewee are both native speakers of English; 2) 20 interviews in which the interviewer is a native speaker of English whereas the interviewee is a non-native speaker of English; 3) 20 interviews in which the interviewer is a non-native speaker of English whereas the interviewee is a native speaker of English; 4) 20 interviews in which the interviewer and the interviewee are both non-native speakers of English.

2021 - Pointing in Science: An Analysis of Body and Linguistic Deixis in Nobel Lectures with PowerPoint Slides [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

Within the last decades, PowerPoint has become a technology and a medium of communication that has contributed to a profound transformation of lecturing and presenting information in academia. However, until recently PowerPoint slideshows have received only limited attention in the fields of discourse analysis and social semiotic research (Djonov and Van Leeuwen 2011; 2012; 2013; Zhao, Djonov and Van Leeuwen 2014). Only a few studies have focused on the design of slideshows (e.g., Campagna 2009; Finn 2010; Rowley-Jolivet 2004) in relation to conference presentations (Degano 2012; Diani 2015; Costa 2017). Moreover, the interplay of speech, pointing, and body formations seems to have been neglected by the discourse analytical literature and has only been considered in the field of sociology (Knoblauch 2008). Pointing, nevertheless, seems to be a peculiar feature of conference presentations supported by PPT slides, allowing knowledge to be located in space. As a consequence, this paper aims to address aspects of linguistic pointing deixis in relation to the PowerPoint slides as well as to the body and gesture deixis of the presenter. To reach this aim, the study adopts a twofold methodology, fusing together Levinson’s theory of spatial deixis (1983) with the sociological approach of Knoblauch (2008) for body formation of pointing. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of nine Nobel lectures (i.e., three in economics; three in medicine; three in chemistry) collected from 2010 to 2015, considering their PowerPoints, their videos, and their transcriptions. Results show that knowledge transfer is defined in Nobel lecture PowerPoint presentations by the combination of speaking and showing, thus becoming presented knowledge rather than representing knowledge itself (Knoblauch 2008, 75).

2020 - Argumentation and Ideology in the Dissemination of Specialized Discourse [Breve Introduzione]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Mocini, Renzo; Anne Turnbull, Judith
abstract

This special issue of Token: A Journal of Linguistics contains a collection of papers drawing on the work presented at the Colloquium Exploring the Discursive Creation of Argumentation and Ideology in Evolving Specialized Knowledge Domains organized by Prof. Rita Salvi as part of an Italian national research project1 under the auspices of the CLAVIER research centre.2 The Colloquium was held in Rome on June 13-14, 2019 and some of the papers published here were presented at the Colloquium, while others have been inspired by the topic which was intensively and extensively discussed during the two days of study. The papers cover a wide range of contexts in which knowledge dissemination can take place, focusing on different domains, participants and levels of specialisation. Knowledge dissemination is, in fact, characterised by asymmetrical cognitive relationships.

2020 - Argumentation and Ideology in the Dissemination of Specialized Discourse. Introduction pp.2-7. In Argumentation and Ideology in the Dissemination of Specialized Discourse [Curatela]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Anne Turnbull, Judith; Mocini, Renzo
abstract

This special issue of Token: A Journal of Linguistics contains a collection of papers drawing on the work presented at the Colloquium Exploring the Discursive Creation of Argumentation and Ideology in Evolving Specialized Knowledge Domains organized by Prof. Rita Salvi as part of an Italian national research project1 under the auspices of the CLAVIER research centre.2 The Colloquium was held in Rome on June 13-14, 2019 and some of the papers published here were presented at the Colloquium, while others have been inspired by the topic which was intensively and extensively discussed during the two days of study. The papers cover a wide range of contexts in which knowledge dissemination can take place, focusing on different domains, participants and levels of specialisation.

2020 - Argumentation and Ideology in the Dissemination of Specialized Knoweldge [Curatela]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Mocini, Renzo; Turnbull, Judith Anne
abstract

2020 - Broadcasting medical discourse: the dissemination of dietary treatments for refractory epilepsy through YouTube [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

New media and Web 2.0 are having a significant impact on science and technology for the communication of specialized topics from experts to non-experts (Garzone 2007). Many studies have focused on the dissemination of medical discourse through digital media (see among others Wiese 2002; Vicentini 2012; Luzon 2015; Turnbull 2015; Mattiello 2017); however, to the best of our knowledge, no empirical research has been conducted on the linguistic and rhetorical features of broadcast platforms, i.e. Youtube, used to disseminate medical topics. The purpose of this paper is thus to analyze the strategies employed for the dissemination of medical knowledge (i.e. definitions, denominations, reformulations, exemplifications, scenarios [cf. Calsamiglia, van Dijk 2004, Gülich 2003]) on Youtube, dealing in particular with a specific dietary treatment for refractory epilepsy in paediatric patients, i.e. the Ketogenic diet. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of a series of video clips (i.e. Bites From Banff: Interviews From The 5th Global Symposium on Ketogenic Diet Therapies) gathered from the Youtube Channel of the well-known Charlie Foundation that provides information about the Ketogenic diet as a therapy for people with epilepsy, other neurological disorders and select cancers. The 38 videos deal with a range of topics about epilepsy and 11 its management with the diet and they are presented by different health professionals (e.g. neurologists, pediatricians, nutritionists, etc.) . Textual data are retrieved from the broadcast. From a methodological perspective, recourse to corpus linguistics and discourse analytical tools shall enable us to investigate the dissemination strategies involved (Gülich 2003; Calsamiglia, van Dijk 2004; Garzone 2006) and the metadiscourse (Hyland 2005) used to guide the non-expert receivers of the video (textual metadiscourse) through medical issues, and to make the audience participate to the construction of knowledge (interpersonal metadiscourse).

2020 - From abstracts to video-abstracts: academic argumentation in genre hybridization [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

This paper deals with the influence of the advent of digital media technologies on academic discourse. Specifically, it addresses the changes in the argumentative realizations of two academic genres belonging to the same genre colony, written abstracts (WAB) and video abstracts (VAB), in management journals. The study proposes an analysis of the rhetorical strategies used by authors to express their authorial selves and to create a relationship with the readers. Specifically, the study addresses the role and changes in metadiscourse, focusing on stance (hedges, boosters, self-mentions, attitude markers) and engagement markers (reader pronouns, directives, questions, shared knowledge, asides) as means for writers to guide readers and display an appropriate professional persona. These elements are an important aspect of persuasive writing and may be employed differently due to the genre hybridization caused by the multimodal shift of the textual realization. Results of the analysis will show that metadiscursive items are far more present in VABs than in WABs, thus highlighting a greater interactivity in the construction of the academic argument as regards both the presence of the author and the search for scholarly solidarity communality with the parent discourse community.

2019 - Assessing caregiver informative materials on the ketogenic diet in Italy: A textual ethnographic approach [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Marchio', Maddalena; Bondi, Marina; Biagini, Giuseppe
abstract

Caregiver informative materials are an important complement to verbal interaction in medical encounters enhancing caregivers’ health literacy and this is particularly true when dealing with treatments that are still little known, as is the ketogenic diet (KD) for pediatric refractory epilepsy in Italy. Their value is dependent upon whether they contain useful information from the viewpoint of the caregiver and are easily understood. The present study analyses informative booklets on the KD found in the Italian context, combining an ethnographic and a textual perspective, i.e. textual ethnography (Swales 1998) for assessing the quality of written caregiver information on the KD in Italy. We based our analysis on a two-fold methodology involving an Information Satisfaction Questionnaire (ISQ) and the application of a framework theory created by Clerehan et al. (2005), i.e. the Evaluative Linguistic Framework (ELF). Results show that together with the ethnographic assessment of informative materials obtained through the questionnaire, the analysis of key linguistic features gave important evidence to improve the quality of informational texts for caregivers.

2019 - Communicating Specialized Knowledge. Old Genres and New Media [Curatela]
Bondi, Marina; Cacchiani, Silvia; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

Communicating Specialized Knowledge: Old Genres and New Media was born out of the idea that domain-specific knowledge has two major dimensions to it: on the one hand, peer-to-peer communication that is primarily intended to further research within the disciplines; on the other, domain-external, asymmetric communication of ‘filtered’ knowledge to different types of lay-audiences. Collectively, the chapters in the volume take the reader on a journey through knowledge communication and knowledge (re)presentation strategies that are able to successfully disseminate and communicate. The field domains under scrutiny are medicine and health, corporate communication, cultural heritage and tourism. A number of issues are addressed at the interface of corpus linguistics, genre studies and multimodal analysis. It is hoped that the variety of questions posed and methods used to explore corpus data in context will contribute to further debate among scholars in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, multimodality, media studies and computer-mediated communication, EAP and ESP.

2019 - Communicating specialized knowledge: Introduction and overview [Capitolo/Saggio]
Bondi, Marina; Cacchiani, Silvia; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

“Communicating Specialized Knowledge: Old Genres and New Media” was born out of the idea that domain-specific knowledge has two major dimensions to it: on the one hand, peer-to-peer communication that is primarily intended to further research within the disciplines; on the other, asymmetric communication of selected, ‘filtered’ knowledge to lay people. Importantly, communicating specialized knowledge involves the construction, presentation and communication of knowledge (Kastberg 2010; Ditlevsen 2011) in texts that effectively adjust to the knowledge background, knowledge- and personality-related needs of the intended addressees within the relevant communicative setting. In this context, research in Languages for Specific Purposes (LSP) has made important contributions to the study of ‘internal’, peer-to-peer communication in traditional genres and now remediated and emergent online genres. Working at the interface of theoretical and applied linguistics, specialized lexicography or terminology, and primarily taking genre-oriented and corpus-analytical approaches, LSP scholars have identified a number of recurrent features as broadly characterizing specialized communication in several domains of expertise. To name but a few: terminology, lexical density, extensive recourse to nominalization and modification within the noun phrase, frequent use of the passive voice and syntactically complex clauses, genre- and domain-specific metadiscourse and hedging. The very same features, however, might hinder ‘domain-external’ communication and the ability of experts and professionals to reach out to lay people. This remains a problem that commands scholarly attention in the context of the cultural growth and socio-economic development of contemporary society at large. Taking inspiration from seminal work like Linell (1998) and Calsamiglia and van Dijk (2004), therefore, the focus of LSP studies has recently broadened to cover the merits and demerits of knowledge dissemination and popularization strategies in domain-specific discourses (cf., e.g., Henriksen, Frøyland 2000; Gotti 2014; Garzone, Heaney, Riboni, eds. 2016; Bondi, Sezzi 2017; Salvi, Turnbull, eds. 2017; Engberg et al., eds. 2018). There are several reasons why experts should deliberately carry relevant parts of their specialized knowledge outside of their expert discourse communities and make them accessible to non-experts (adapted from Henriksen, Frøyland 2000; Allan 2002). Access to knowledge is a public good for all (UNESCO 2005). First, citizens interact with domain-specific texts on a daily basis (e.g., bank statements, tax reports and patient information leaflets). Additionally, domain literacy can earn citizens a better job while benefiting the nation as a whole. For instance, promoting financial literacy may help curb blind investments and prevent damage to individual households and the nation. In that sense, effective knowledge dissemination works towards empowerment of lay people, social inclusion and equality in the participation domain. As exposure to information in the digital world continues to grow, questions concerning the discursive strategies and the pragmatics of knowledge dissemination will continue to arise. For instance: • against the backdrop of landmark publications such as Scollon and Scollon (1995), Linell (1998), Calsamiglia and van Dijk (2004) or Gotti (2014), questions about recourse to linguistic knowledge dissemination strategies (cf., e.g. Bondi, Cacchiani, Mazzi, eds. 2015); • based on classics such as Barthes (1977 [1964]), Kress and van Leuween (2010) or Bateman (2014), issues concerning text/image pairs, multimodality and hyperstructural features in hyper-multimodal environments (cf., e.g., Lemke 2003; Engberg, Meier 2015), also in relation to web-page usability (e.g., Nielsen 1999; Farrell 2014; work by their associates at NN/g); • questions about roles and relationships, social maneuv

2019 - Exploring health literacy: Web-based genres in disseminating specialized knowledge to caregivers. The case of paediatric neurological disorders [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Diani, Giuliana
abstract

This paper aims at analyzing the discursive practices used in web-based informative materials in the specific context of a chronic disease, i.e. neurological disorders resulting in epilepsy, for liaising with caregivers of paediatric patients. The study centres on a corpus of webpages gathered from the websites of the major foundations dealing with paediatric neurological syndromes. From a methodological perspective, the study makes recourse to existing studies on the discursive practices that in the literature on knowledge dissemination are identified as being used to facilitate the layman’s access to specialized scientific knowledge. The overall results show that knowledge dissemination strategies used in the webpages under investigation offer cognitive tools to parents as caregivers in order to make them informed about their children’s disease. These webpages enhance caregiver health literacy and achieve the goal of caregiver empowerment, giving her/his greater control over decisions affecting her/his child’s health.

2019 - The Dissemination of Dietary Treatments for Refractory Epilepsy: A Preliminary Analysis of Web-based Discourse on the Ketogenic Diet [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

New media and Web 2.0 are having a significant impact on science and technology for the communication of specialized topics from experts to non-experts (Garzone 2007). Many studies have focused on the dissemination of medical discourse through digital media (see, among others, Luzón 2015; Turnbull 2015a, 2015b; Maglie 2017; Mattiello 2017); however, to the best of our knowledge, limited empirical research has been conducted on investigating the intersection of knowledge dissemination and health literacy (Muñoz-Miquel 2012; Briones 2015) especially for chronic diseases such as epilepsy. Thus, the purpose of this paper is to analyse the strategies employed for the dissemination of medical knowledge to caregivers (i.e., definitions, denominations, reformulations, exemplifications, scenarios; Gülich 2003; Calsamiglia, van Dijk 2004; Garzone 2006) through web-based materials, dealing in particular with a specific dietary treatment for refractory epilepsy in paediatric patients ‒ the Ketogenic Diet. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of web-based informative materials, the so-called Keto-Corp, collected from the websites of the two major foundations providing information on the Ketogenic Diet: the Matthew’s Friends Foundation (https://www.matthewsfriends.org) for the UK and the Charlie Foundation (https://charliefoundation.org) for the US. From a methodological perspective, recourse to corpus linguistics and discourse analytical tools shall enable us to investigate not only the dissemination strategies involved but also the metadiscourse used (Hyland 2005) to make the audience participate to the construction of knowledge.

2018 - RHETORICAL VARIATION IN ENGLISH AND ITALIAN LAW RESEARCH ARTICLE ABSTRACTS: A CROSS-CULTURAL ANALYSIS [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Diani, Giuliana
abstract

The study of academic discourse has become an area of great interest over the last two decades, especially from a genre perspective (e.g. Swales 1990, 2004; Bhatia 1993, 2004). Research in the field has mainly focused on highly conventionalised written academic genres, such as research articles, abstracts, and textbooks, often combining linguistic and rhetorical analysis. Although not as widely studied as the research article itself or the textbook, the abstract has drawn the attention of a number of genre researchers (Salager-Meyer 1990; Bhatia 1993; Kaplan et al. 1994; Santos 1996; Bondi 1997, 2001; Hyland 2000; Martín-Martín 2003; Dahl 2004; Lorés-Sanz 2004, 2009; Samraj 2005; Pho 2008; Bondi and Cavalieri 2012; Bondi and Lorés-Sanz 2014). Genre-based studies on research article (RA) abstracts have received quite a lot of scholarly attention in English (e.g. Graetz 1985; Berkenkotter and Huckin 1995; Santos 1996; Hyland 2000; Lorés-Sanz 2004; Cross and Oppenheim 2006; Swales and Feak 2009), across different disciplinary fields (Harvey and Horsella 1988; Salager-Meyer 1990; Tibbo 1992; Lindeberg 1996; Anderson and Maclean 1997; Hartley and Benjamin 1998; Samraj 2005; Busch-Lauer 2014; Cavalieri 2014), and across cultures. There are studies comparing English with Spanish (Martín-Martín 2003, 2005; Lorés-Sanz 2009), French (Crosnier 1993; Van Bonn and Swales 2007; Alonso-Almeida 2014; Hatzitheodorou 2014), Portuguese (Johns 1992), German (Busch-Lauer 1995), Swedish (Melander et al. 1997), and Arabic (Alharbi and Swales 2011). One notable exception to date is lack of attention to abstracts written in Italian. The context of this work is provided by a previous study (Diani 2014) which looked at the rhetorical structure of English and Italian RA abstracts in the field of linguistics. The aim of the present study is to extend previous observations to the field of law, with the intent of investigating the rhetorical preferences that characterize the members of the international and Italian scientific communities in this disciplinary field. Within this field, extensive research has been conducted on the analysis of non-academic texts (e.g. Bhatia 1993, 2008; Gotti and Williams 2010; Bhatia et al. 2012). To the best of our knowledge, however, little attention has been paid to the analysis of academic legal texts such as RAs (Feak et al. 2000; Tessuto 2008; Peacock 2011; Sala 2012, 2014; Tessuto 2015), and RA abstracts in particular: in fact, only few studies are known to us (Frey and Kaplan 2010; Tessuto 2012; Hatzitheodorou 2014; Sala 2014; Cavalieri and Preite forthcoming). This paper seeks to fill the gap by providing insights into variation across the two cultures emerged from the linguistic realisations of the rhetorical moves characterizing the abstract genre in the discipline of criminal law.

2018 - Rhetorical Variation in English and Italian Law Research Article Abstracts: A Cross-Linguistic Analysis [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Diani, Giuliana
abstract

The study of academic discourse has become an area of great interest over the last two decades, especially from a genre perspective (e.g. Swales 1990, 2004; Bhatia 1993, 2004). Research in the field has mainly focused on highly conventionalised written academic genres, such as research articles, abstracts, and textbooks, often combining linguistic and rhetorical analysis. Although not as widely studied as the research article itself or the textbook, the abstract has drawn the attention of a number of genre researchers (Salager-Meyer 1990; Bhatia 1993; Kaplan et al. 1994; Santos 1996; Bondi 1997, 2001; Hyland 2000; Martín-Martín 2003; Dahl 2004; Lorés-Sanz 2004, 2009; Samraj 2005; Pho 2008; Bondi and Cavalieri 2012; Bondi and Lorés-Sanz 2014). Genre-based studies on research article (RA) abstracts have received quite a lot of scholarly attention in English (e.g. Graetz 1985; Berkenkotter and Huckin 1995; Santos 1996; Hyland 2000; Lorés-Sanz 2004; Cross and Oppenheim 2006; Swales and Feak 2009), across different disciplinary fields (Harvey and Horsella 1988; Salager-Meyer 1990; Tibbo 1992; Lindeberg 1996; Anderson and Maclean 1997; Hartley and Benjamin 1998; Samraj 2005; Busch-Lauer 2014; Cavalieri 2014), and across cultures. There are studies comparing English with Spanish (Martín-Martín 2003, 2005; Lorés-Sanz 2009), French (Crosnier 1993; Van Bonn and Swales 2007; Alonso-Almeida 2014; Hatzitheodorou 2014), Portuguese (Johns 1992), German (Busch-Lauer 1995), Swedish (Melander et al. 1997), and Arabic (Alharbi and Swales 2011). One notable exception to date is lack of attention to abstracts written in Italian. The context of this work is provided by a previous study (Diani 2014) which looked at the rhetorical structure of English and Italian RA abstracts in the field of linguistics. The aim of the present study is to extend previous observations to the field of law, with the intent of investigating the rhetorical preferences that characterize the members of the international and Italian scientific communities in this disciplinary field. Within this field, extensive research has been conducted on the analysis of non-academic texts (e.g. Bhatia 1993, 2008; Gotti and Williams 2010; Bhatia et al. 2012). To the best of our knowledge, however, little attention has been paid to the analysis of academic legal texts such as RAs (Feak et al. 2000; Tessuto 2008; Peacock 2011; Sala 2012, 2014; Tessuto 2015), and RA abstracts in particular: in fact, only few studies are known to us (Frey and Kaplan 2010; Tessuto 2012; Hatzitheodorou 2014; Sala 2014; Cavalieri and Preite forthcoming). This paper seeks to fill the gap by providing insights into variation across the two cultures emerged from the linguistic realisations of the rhetorical moves characterizing the abstract genre in the discipline of criminal law.

2018 - The IBI/BEI Project: Monitoring Bilingual Education in Primary Schools [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

This paper tackles an example of bilingual education in primary education presenting a project carried out at primary school level on the teaching of three subjects (i.e. Science, Geography, Art) delivered in English, which was also the language for class interaction, to provide a fully immersive educational environment. The project, called IBI/BEI (Insegnamento Bilingue ItaliaBilingual Education Italy), was developed by the Italian Ministry of Education, the British Council Italy and the USR Lombardia (the Regional Education Office of Lombardy) on the basis of a project implemented in Spain in 1996. This study provides the data collected during a monitoring activity on the project and reflects on the best practices for promoting bilingual education in the early stages of learning. Results demonstrate that the IBI/BEI project set out to prepare children to face the challenge of internationalization, but also showed a major limitation, as it did not continue in the subsequent stages of education. This drawback was mentioned by all the actors involved in the study, who expressed their concern towards such a valuable initiative being a oneoff experience

2017 - BROADCASTING LEGAL DISCOURSE: THE POPULARI-ZATION OF FAMILY LAW THROUGH YOUTUBE [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

New media and Web 2.0 are having a significant impact on science and techno-logy for the communication of specialized topics from experts to non-experts (Garzone 2007). However, only few studies have focused on the popularization of legal discourse (Anesa 2012; Williams 2013) and even fewer on the impact of web genres on its dissemination (Chierichetti 2006; Garzone 2014; Eng-berg/Luttermann 2014). Moreover, to the best of our knowledge, no empirical research has been conducted on the use of broadcast platforms, i.e. YouTube, to popularize legal topics. The purpose of this paper is thus to analyze the strategies employed for the popularization of legal discourse (i.e. definitions, denomina-tions, reformulations, exemplifications, cf. Calsamiglia/van Dijk 2004) on You-tube, focusing in particular on the specific branch of Family Law, as one of the most relevant and close to lay-people. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of video clips gathered from the Youtube channel of the well-known British lawyer Marilyn Stowe, the Stowe Family Law YouTube channel. Each video deals with a different topic on Family Law. Textual data is retrieved from the broadcast. From a methodological perspective, recourse to corpus linguistics and discourse analytical tools shall enable us to investigate the popularizing strategies involved (Calsamiglia/van Dijk 2004; Garzone 2006) and the metadiscourse (Hyland 2005a, 2005b) used to guide the non-expert receivers of the video (textual meta-discourse) through legal issues, and to let the audience take part in knowledge construction (interpersonal metadiscourse).

2017 - Genre variation and changes in frame sequences across cultures: the case of Criminology RA abstracts in English and French [Articolo su rivista]
Preite, Chiara; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

Though not as widely studied as the Research Article (RA), the abstract has attracted increasing interest among researchers over last decades (Swales 1990, Bhatia 1993, Dos Santos 1996, Lorés-Sanz 2008, Bondi/Cavalieri 2012, Cavalieri 2014). A number of contrastive or comparative studies of abstracts in English and other languages (Martín- Martín 2005, Lorés Sanz 2006, Van Bonn & Swales 2007, Diani 2014) have already been carried out considering mainly the hard sciences and some soft sciences such as linguistics and history, however no cross-cultural analyses have been conducted so far between RA abstracts in English and RA abstracts in French published in the legal field. This paper seeks to investigate genre variation and changes in frame sequences comparatively in English and French RA abstracts from criminology journals. Using a genre analytical approach to qualitative and quantitative data, the paper reports on two comparable corpora, i.e. English and French, of electronically retrieved abstracts from Criminology Journals published in 2014. The two corpora are composed of three journals per language, namely Criminology, Journal of Criminal Justice, Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology for the English corpus, and Champ Pénal, Criminologie, Revue Canadienne de Droit Pénal et Criminologie for the French corpus. The analysis will be carried out following two main steps, i.e. a macro-analysis and a micro-analysis. In the former step, the corpora are compared by the analysis and discussion of the basic IMRD rhetorical move structure for the RA often proposed in the literature (e.g. Nwogu 1990; Swales 1990; Bhatia 1993; Ventola 1994; Martín-Martín 2002) and the additional five moves model postulated by Dos Santos (1996) with the aim of investigating the linguistic and rhetorical variation in the abstract genre from a cross-cultural perspective. In the latter, we look at frame sequences (Bondi/Cavalieri 2012) combining forms of self-mentions and frame markers (Hyland 2005), i.e. personal patterns, impersonal patterns and locational patterns (Dahl 2004). Provisional results show that the abstracts under investigation largely follow the international conventions based on the norms established by the English-speaking international academic community. However, variation across the two cultures emerged from the linguistic realizations of framework sequences. Cross-cultural implications are discussed at the close.

2016 - Argumentative strategies in the judgments of the European Court of Justice. On the use of connectives in French and English judgments [Capitolo/Saggio]
Preite, Chiara; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

The argumentative nature of judicial texts has been pointed out by various authors (cf. Perelman 1980; Aarnio 1989; Alexy 1989; Peczenik 1989; Feteris 2002). However, the importance of language in the construction of argumentation in judicial settings has been largely underestimated. The aim of this chapter is thus to provide new insights in the description of the linguistic component of argumentation in legal discourse, by presenting results of a comparative analysis of argumentative connectives in the judgments of the European Court of Justice (CJEU) issued in French and translated into English. As French is the procedural language, our objective is to discuss whether and to what extent translators make recourse to one-to-one equivalence or, conversely, one-to-many equivalence, or to reduction (Malone 1988). The analysis was carried out on two parallel corpora of judgements of the CJEU in the years 2008-2013. The first corpus consists of the original French version of the judgements (CJEU_Fr); the second one consists of their English translations (CJEU_En). To test our claims on a possible influence of the French language on the use of connectives in the English translations, we also compared the CJEU_En corpus to a reference corpus of judgements delivered by the House of Lords (UK) (HoL corpus) As for methodology, we relied on the integration of discourse and corpus analysis tools basing our theoretical framework on Perelman (1979) and on Riegel et al.’s (1999) classification of argumentative connectives. Results show a massive use of connectives in French judgements. However, a more frequent use of argumentative connectives can be observed in CJEU_EN corpus rather than in the HoL corpus providing evidence for the influence of the original French version on the English translations of CJEU Judgements.

2016 - The BEI/IBI Project: A Study on the Best Practices in Integrating Language and Content Learning in Primary Schools. [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Stermieri, Anna
abstract

The BEI/IBI Project: A Study on the Best Practices in Integrating Language and Content Learning in Primary Schools.

2016 - Will steroid measurements affect the outcomes of clinical trials? Comparison between immunoassayand mass spectrometry in men with Kinefelter Syndrome undergoing human corionic gonadotropin stimulation test. [Abstract in Atti di Convegno]
Santi, Daniele; Roli, L.; Belli, Serena; Tagliavini, Silvia; Cavalieri, Silvia; De Santis, M. C.; Baraldi, Enrica; Fanelli, F.; Mezzullo, M.; Granata, A. R.; Pagotto, U.; Pasquali, R.; Rochira, Vincenzo; Carani, Cesare; Trenti, T.; Simoni, Manuela
abstract

The abstract deal with the comparison between immunoassayand mass spectrometry in measuring sex steroids in men with Kinefelter Syndrome

2015 - Popularizing medical discourse: the role of captions [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

In the last decades, several studies have been concerned with the analysis of the discourse of popularization (see for example Shinn/ Whitley 1985; Gregory/Miller 1998; Myers 1997, 2003; Ciapuscio 2003; Calsamiglia/Van Dijk 2004). Many scholars have been interested in the language adopted by journalists and media professionals when dealing with scientific research articles and have focused in particular on the linguistic features of popularizing texts. This line of research has often analysed journalists’ products in comparison with the original research articles in scientific journals, pointing out several differences at various levels, such as textual, syntactic and rhetorical levels (Myers 1990, 1991, 1994; Calsamiglia 2003). Furthermore, particular interest has been placed on those linguistic strategies enacted in order to enhance lay readers’ comprehension such as the use of metaphors (Gülich 2003) and other expressive functions (e.g. definition, denomination, description, exemplification, generalization, paraphrase or reformulation; cf. Calsamiglia/Van Dijk 2004; Garzone 2006). As far as the definition of popularization is concerned, this process has often been identified as a ‘social operation’ aimed at communicating lay versions of scientific knowledge among the public at large (Jacobi 1999; Calsamiglia/Van Dijk 2004). The discourse of popularization is a pluricode discourse in which text, images, stylesheets and colours semantically interact (Lemke 1998; Miller 1998) through a multimodal approach (Gotti 2013). As Bontems (2013: 103) argues, images are fundamental to the construction of scientific knowledge for a lay audience since they influence the reader’s sensitivity, thus 88 Silvia Cavalieri enhancing comprehension. The journalist is the mediator between science and its popularization and he/she chooses the right images and, in the case of complex technical ones, he/she adapts them to the supposed background knowledge of their public (Jacobi 1999; Bontems 2013). Even though in the last years many studies have claimed the importance of images in the field of science popularization (see among others Jacobi 1999; Bontems 2013; Dondero 2013; Lathene-Da Cunha 2013), little attention has been paid to the role of captions in the process of conveying specialist knowledge for a wider audience of nonspecialists (Myers 1997). In order to fill this gap in the literature, the present work aims at providing an introductory description of captions in the discourse of medicine through the media, focusing in particular on three comparable corpora of news collected from the medicine sections of French, English and Italian online magazines of science popularization. To be more specific, the study deals with the popularizing strategies used in the captions and their relation with the news and the image they refer to. Moreover, the use of captions is compared in the three languages to highlight similarities or differences in their use in order to see what strategies are typical of popularization discourse in different cultures

2014 - Il progetto IBI/BEI nella scuola primaria: Rapporto di monitoraggio [Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Bondi, Marina; Poppi, Franca; Stermieri, Anna
abstract

Obiettivo del monitoraggio è quello di fornire un quadro che consenta una riflessione sul progetto e, più ampiamente, sull’istruzione bilingue come componente curricolare e modalità operativa. L’azione di monitoraggio ha coinvolto tutte le parti interessate: dirigenti, docenti, genitori e bambini. Gli ambiti di indagine sono stati: a) motivazione ed atteggiamento di alunni, personale e genitori; b) buone pratiche; c) competenze acquisite dagli alunni. Gli strumenti utilizzati per raccogliere le informazioni sono stati molteplici: a) un questionario rivolto a tutti i docenti del progetto su: motivazioni, modalità di progettazione, modalità di implementazione e impatto dell’esperienza IBI/BEI, nonché esigenze formative del docente1; b) interviste semi-strutturate/ focus group con i dirigenti scolastici e con un campione rappresentativo di docenti, di bambini e di genitori, per approfondire motivazioni e percezioni presso tutte e sei le scuole coinvolte; c) analisi di un task comune somministrato a tutti gli alunni, per ottenere una misurazione preliminare dei risultati conseguiti nella lingua inglese. La relazione documenta le diverse fasi della ricerca ed evidenzia i risultati positivi del progetto.

2014 - Il progetto IBI/BEI nella scuola primaria: Sintesi del Rapporto di monitoraggio [Altro]
Cavalieri, Silvia; Bondi, Marina; Poppi, Franca; Stermieri, Anna
abstract

Obiettivo del monitoraggio è quello di fornire un quadro che consenta una riflessione sul progetto e, più ampiamente, sull’istruzione bilingue come componente curricolare e modalità operativa.L’azione di monitoraggio ha coinvolto tutte le parti interessate: dirigenti, docenti, genitori e bambini. Gli ambiti di indagine sono stati:a) motivazione ed atteggiamento di alunni, personale e genitori;b) buone pratiche;c) competenze acquisite dagli alunni.Gli strumenti utilizzati per raccogliere le informazioni sono stati molteplici:a) un questionario rivolto a tutti i docenti del progetto su: motivazioni, modalità di progettazione, modalità di implementazione e impatto dell’esperienza IBI/BEI, nonché esigenze formative del docente1;b) interviste semi-strutturate/ focus group con i dirigenti scolastici e con un campione rappresentativo di docenti, di bambini e di genitori, per approfondire motivazioni e percezioni presso tutte e sei le scuole coinvolte;c) analisi di un task comune somministrato a tutti gli alunni, per ottenere una misurazione preliminare dei risultati conseguiti nella lingua inglese.

2014 - La rappresentazione della ricerca negli accordi universitari europei e statunitensi [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

Analisi di corpora di accordi internazionali di ricerca in lingua inglese, analisi del genere comunicativo e delle parole della ricerca

2014 - Memoranda of Understanding (MoU): generic and syntactic aspects [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

This chapter focuses on the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) in the academic setting, a genre that has hardly been studied so far. The MoU, also named Memorandum of Agreement (MoA), is a bilateral or multilateral agreement signed between institutions (universities, departments etc.) which – in consideration of its nature as a binding formal agreement – qualifies as one of many realizations of the (macro-)genre of contracts. In particular, the study presented here deals with Memoranda of Understanding signed for academic purposes by Anglophone universities (United Kingdom, U.S.A., Australia) with international partners, and has the ultimate purpose of verifying whether MoUs can actually be considered as a variation on the macro-genre of contracts. To this end, this study first of all identifies structural similarities and differences between the MoU and the macro-genre to which it can be thought to belong, i.e. the contract. Therefore it describes the generic structure of MoUs, the rhetorical moves they feature and the distinctive rhetorical patterns characterizing each of such moves, as well as their lexical and syntactic realizations. This makes it possible to pinpoint those aspects that this (micro-)genre shares with contracts, and identify and categorize those in which it differs from them. Then, from the rhetorical/cognitive level the analysis goes on to examine linguistic realizations, and makes recourse to comparisonin order to ascertain which distinctive features the MoU shares withthe standard contract. Findings highlight the variability that can beobserved within the macro-genre of contracts, connected with theneed to accommodate the different rhetorical and practical exigenciesof the discourse communities involved. The analysis also providesan opportunity for considerations on variation within macrogenres,such as contracts, and the impact of hybridization.The methodological approach adopted in this work relies on theexisting literature on contracts, so far not extensive and it makes use of genre theoretical and genreanalytical tools developed in research on specialized discourse andprofessional communication, as this perspective offers a complementaryanalytical perspective focused on the textual realisation of therhetorical moves identified.

2014 - Memoranda of Understanding and contracts. An analysis of speech acts [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the differences in the use of modals to create illocutionary acts considering three legal genres, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Letter of Intent (LoI) and the contract. On the one hand, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is an agreement that has hardly been investigated in the existing literature and it is used to establish cooperation in research and in academic/cultural activities between universities. On the other hand, the Letter of Intent is a genre generally used in corporate communication that precedes the MoU in the development of joint research nets. The MoU can be considered as a specific type of contract, thus our research questions are: what are the most significant differences in modal realization among the MoU the LoI and corporate contracts? Are illocutionary acts genres-bound? In particular, thestudy sets out to explore the use of speech acts. Therefore, it focuses on regulative patterns considering the rhetorical functions of directive and commissive acts (Trosborg 1995) in this legal genre. The analysis is based on a corpus of MoUs signed by Anglophone universities (UK – US – AUS). The results obtained are then compared to those of two comparable corpora of contracts and of Letters of Intent (LoI) in order to show differences and similarities in the patterns observed. From a methodological point of view, the study integrates corpus linguistics and discourse analytical perspectives in the investigation of textual data, relying on both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A combination of computational analysis and manual tagging is employed to select all the relevant regulative speech acts in the corpus. Results show that the MoU is a “hybrid genre” (Bhatia 2004), an instance of “interdiscursive colonisation” (Bhatia 2011: 106) in which the directive component of the contract is combined with the commissive one of the Letter of Intent

2014 - Memoranda of understanding, letters of intent and contracts: An analysis of speech acts [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

The aim of this paper is to explore the differences in the use of modals to create illocutionary acts considering three legal genres, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Letter of Intent (LoI) and the contract. On the one hand, the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) is an agreement that has hardly been investigated in the existing literature and it is used to establish cooperation in research and in academic/cultural activities between universities. On the other hand, the Letter of Intent is a genre generally used in corporate communication that precedes the MoU in the development of joint research nets. The MoU can be considered as a specific type of contract, thus our research questions are: what are the most significant differences in modal realization among the MoU the LoI and corporate contracts? Are illocutionary acts genres-bound? In particular, thestudy sets out to explore the use of speech acts. Therefore, it focuses on regulative patterns considering the rhetorical functions of directive and commissive acts (Trosborg 1995) in this legal genre. The analysis is based on a corpus of MoUs signed by Anglophone universities (UK – US – AUS). The results obtained are then compared to those of two comparable corpora of contracts and of Letters of Intent (LoI) in order to show differences and similarities in the patterns observed. From a methodological point of view, the study integrates corpus linguistics and discourse analytical perspectives in the investigation of textual data, relying on both qualitative and quantitative analysis. A combination of computational analysis and manual tagging is employed to select all the relevant regulative speech acts in the corpus. Results show that the MoU is a “hybrid genre” (Bhatia 2004), an instance of “interdiscursive colonisation” (Bhatia 2011: 106) in which the directive component of the contract is combined with the commissive one of the Letter of Intent.

2014 - Variation across disciplines. The case of applied linguistics and medicine [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

The study compares applied linguistics and medicine abstracts by examining their structure, metadiscourse, and verbs of saying. medicine prefers the inclusion of the results and discussion moves, the situating research move and the authorial persona in the methods move. Another meaningful difference is the greater attribution of utterances to others in applied linguistics. These findings are interpreted as signaling a greater emphasis on empiricism on the part of medical authors, as well as a more elaborate construction of a community of informed readers.

2013 - Courtroom discourse in the witness examination. the case of the public inquiry [Monografia/Trattato scientifico]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

The leading questions from which the present study originates could be summarised as follows: How do lawyers use questions to influence witness’ narratives? Are Public Inquiries totally inquisitorial from a linguistic point of view? The first question is bound to the methods to be selected for the analysis, while the second to the peculiarity of the data chosen. Indeed, the majority of the studies on courtroom discourse focuses on trial as a legal genre and research on the Public Inquiry is very limited. Moreover, even in the few contributions available, none considers this proceeding in a genre perspective. The present study starts from the macro-context of the speech event analysed and proceeds to an in-depth study of its linguistic constituents. The analysis will set up a discourse and genre framework to define at first the discursive and generic structure of the Public Inquiry; the scope of the observation will then be restricted to the role of reformulations that are central in the construction of lawyers’ questions. The macro-analysis will begin with the legal framework of the Public Inquiry in order to highlight its position and function in the Common Law legal system. This general overview on the proceeding from a legal point of view will be the basic background to understand the discursive dynamics of the Public Inquiry and in particular of the witness examination as a genre. Specifically, we will consider the different stages of this communicative event analysing their linguistic structure. Moreover, in order to demonstrate the peculiarities of the Public Inquiry, we will also observe differences and similarities with trials, which have been thoroughly described by the previous literature on legal discourses. Finally the analysis will move to the micro-analysis of the genre selected and will concentrate on reformulations as linguistic means exploited by lawyers in order to put effective requests to the witness. To achieve this purpose, the study combines a text perspective (qualitative description, especially for reformulations) and a corpus perspective. On the one hand, manual analysis will identify the reiterated patterns in the use of reformulations. On the other hand, the computerised aid provided by corpus linguistics will integrate the manual analysis, providing the frequency and recursivity of the metadiscursive items associated. The general approach adopted will thus be corpus-driven and the theoretical statements made by the present work will derive from the presence and observation of corpus evidence. Consequently, all the theoretical statements will directly reflect the evidence offered by the corpus. The textual and the computerized perspectives will be fused together in order to gain a complete overview of the linguistic strategies used by the legal professionals during the witness examination. The issues raised and the methodological framework described in this section will be further clarified in section 1.3. where we will discuss the structural organization of the work. In the next section 1.2., we will explain where our research questions originate and why we decided to choose the Public Inquiry witness examinations as data for our analysis.

2013 - Variation and Change in Spoken and Written Discourse: Perspectives from Corpus Linguistics [Curatela]
Bamford, Julia; Cavalieri, Silvia; Diani, Giuliana
abstract

The book focuses on aspects of variation and change in language use in spoken and written discourse on the basis of corpus analyses, providing new descriptive insights, and new methods of utilising small specialized corpora for the description of language variation and change. The sixteen contributions included in this volume represent a variety of diverse views and approaches, but all share the common goal of throwing light on a crucial dimension of discourse: the dialogic interactivity between the spoken and written. Their foci range from papers addressing general issues related to corpus analysis of spoken dialogue to papers focusing on specific cases employing a variety of analytical tools, including qualitative and quantitative analysis of small and large corpora. The volume constitutes a highly valuable tool for applied linguists and discourse analysts as well as for students, instructors and language teachers.

2012 - The evolution of the abstract as a genre: 1988-2008. The case of applied linguistics [Capitolo/Saggio]
Bondi, Marina; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

Academic genres have been the centre of genre-based discourse studies over the last two decades and the rhetorical structures (IMRD) of the abstract have been tackled from a variety of perspectives (Swales, 1990; Ventola, 1994). The present study investigates the evolution of the abstract as a genre over a time span of twenty years (1988-2008) considering in particular the field of applied linguistics in order to demonstrate the rapid changes in communicative practices and linguistic patterns due to the pressure of technological innovations. The analysis is carried out on two corpora of abstracts (70 for 1988, 70 for 1998 and 70 for 2008) collected from applied linguistics journals and the study proposes an integration of corpus and discourse perspectives to make two main points. Firstly, the significant change in the genre textual patterns corresponds to a shift of the focus of the discipline from a more theoretical to a more empirical research perspective outweighing the results and discussion sections. Secondly, this shift also produced an interesting evolution of the role of the researcher and of his/her presence in the genre and consequently in the academic discourse community. To achieve these purposes, the analysis considers the distribution of metadiscourse items in the genre focusing the attention on frame markers (Hyland 2005) for what concerns textual metadiscourse, and on self mentions (Hyland 2005) for what concerns interpersonal metadiscourse. Results will show an increase of textual metadiscursive items linked to empirical considerations on data and results discussion and at the same time will highlight a massive presence of personal self mentions of the researcher from 1988 to 2008 abstracts.

2011 - Genre Hybridization in Legal Discourse. The case of the Public Inquiry Witness Examination [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

ll contributors in this volume analyze specialized genres in private and public as well as professional and institutional domains. The overall focus is genre hybridization across time and space (inclusive of resistance and creativity) and the coherence across the volume is achieved through the acknowledgement of contemporary socio-discursive practices, especially new technologies, globalization, multimodal representation and role-relations.

2011 - Role of Metadiscourse in Counsels’ questions [Capitolo/Saggio]
Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

This chapter focuses on the role of metadiscourse in counsels' questions during the witness examination, considering in particular the case of the Public inquiries in GB. The study discusses functions of both textual and interpersonal metadiscourse (Hyland 1998; 2005) in the realization of lawyers' argumentative strategies to build up effective questions.

2011 - Tracking Language Change in Specialised and Professional Genres. International conference. Modena: 24-26 November 2011 University of Modena and Reggio Emilia [Altro]
Poppi, Franca; Bondi, Marina; Diani, Giuliana; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

The nature of genres has always been defined as both static and dynamic, functioning as discursive action within particular social, historical and cultural contexts but open to individual and collective creativity and innovation. Corpora can be powerful tools in tracking this kind of change, as clearly shown by a well-established tradition in historical linguistics, where growing interest has been shown in the diachronic analysis of specialized genres. Elements of change, however, can also be seen at work in contemporary discourse. As a consequence, there is an increasing need for diachronic approaches that may help map changes brought about for example by new technologies or globalization. Nowadays, with the recession of the traditional constraints of geography on social and cultural arrangements brought about by globalization, new cultural and linguistic interconnections are being established, for example in academic and professional settings. This state of things can account both for the emergence of new ‘globalizing genres’, and for the implementation of a series of adaptations to the existing ones, as possible solutions to guarantee the success and survival of different genres in an era which celebrates the need for a ‘global reach’. The conference intends to focus on such issues in order to provide a better definition of the methods of investigation of language change, the tools, the approaches, the new perspectives, bringing together two complementary strands of linguistic investigation - corpus analysis and genre analysis. The conference purports to describe the extent to which language resources and generic resources are creatively exploited in discourse, variously responding to or determining new socio-cultural scenarios, with a special interest in technological developments which have radically changed the way specialized knowledge is disseminated. In particular, contributions are invited, focusing on textual, intertextual, organizational aspects of genres, as well as on interdiscursivity and other aspects which contextualize genres as reflections of changing disciplinary and professional cultures, investigating how their integrity is negotiated and exploited, in the following domains: Academic Professional Institutional

2010 - The evolution of the abstract as a genre 1988-2008 [Abstract in Atti di Convegno]
Bondi, M; Cavalieri, S
abstract

2009 - CLAVIER 2009: Corpora and Language Variation in English Research, International Conference [Altro]
Bondi, Marina; Cacchiani, Silvia; Cavalieri, Silvia; Diani, Giuliana; Palumbo, Giuseppe
abstract

Corpora – principled collections of data in electronic format – have emerged over the last decades as a powerful analytical tool both in applied and theoretical linguistics. They have turned out of particularly significant importance in studies on language variation and language varieties. Indeed, the wealth and amount of data made available through corpus compilation and query tools have increasingly enabled researchers to explore differences across spoken and written discourse, social, diachronic and geographic varieties, age groups, gender, idiolects, etc. The widening of studies on language variation and language varieties, however, still calls for discussion on significant methodological issues, which pose, among others, the following questions: What are the major methodological problems in the research field? What is the role of the comparative perspective? Which tools and methodology best suit research? The conference focuses on such issues in order to provide a better definition of the concepts under investigation and bring together significant and innovative contributions in what is now understood as a widely researched area, thus presenting new tools and perspectives to be investigated. This is also the main general objective of the CLAVIER research group (Corpus and Language Variation Research Group), a research centre recently founded by the Universities of Bergamo, Firenze, Modena and Reggio Emilia, Roma “La Sapienza”, and Siena, and currently based in Modena. The point of departure is the invaluable contribution of two complementary strands of linguistic investigation - corpus analysis and discourse analysis – to research on language variation in English, both in quantitative and qualitative terms. One of the purposes of the 2009 CLAVIER conference is to reinforce national and international cooperation with scholars and research centres that can widen and complement the interest in language variation currently driving research at the centre. Plenaries by Udo Fries (University of Zürich), Anna Mauranen (University of Helsinki), Josef Schmied (University of Chemnitz), Geoffrey Williams (University of Bretagne-Sud). The conference brought together different perspectives on language variation and use. Plenaries and papers gave a special insight into the following topics: a. using historical corpora to investigate diachronic language variation; b. using corpora as an innovative tool in exploring geographic varieties; c. corpus linguistics in the investigation of non-native language use in professional settings; d. corpus linguistics tools, special languages, and specialist lexicography.

2009 - Migration of Forms: Reformulations in Public Inquiry Witness Hearing [Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

2009 - Reformulation and Conflict in Witness Examination: The Case of Public Inquiries [Articolo su rivista]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

This paper focuses on the development of witness examination as an argumentative dialogue between legal professionals and lay-people, considering inparticular the case of Public Inquiries in Great Britain. This paper discusses the retention of traces of the adversarial system, typical of Common Law trials, in thistype of inquisitorial proceedings, stressing on how counsels exploit some linguistic features to control both the form and the ideational content of the exchange as wellas the power relationship with the witness. The analysis is carried out on a corpus of 15 days of witness examination transcripts (507,346 words) collected from threedifferent Public Inquiries, namely Bloody Sunday Inquiry (Northern Ireland), Shipman Inquiry (England), and Cullen Inquiry (Scotland), to achieve a widerperspective on Common Law administrative justice. The study is based on a discourse and genre analytic approach for the macro-analysis of Public Inquiries in thecontext of courtroom discourse and of witness examination as a genre that develops within this discourse framework. Subsequently, a micro-analysis of the linguisticfeatures used by counsel in questions to argumentatively shape the content and theform of the exchange is provided. We also take into consideration the role ofmetadiscourse (textual and interpersonal), repetitions and reformulations. Preliminaryresults show that these linguistic features provide valuable evidence for thehypothesis that the adversarial side of the argumentative dialogue between legalprofessionals and lay-people during the witness examination of Public Inquiries isretained.

2008 - Book Review "Language from Below – The Irish Language, Ideology and Power in the 20th-Century Ireland", Language Awareness [Recensione in Rivista]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

Analysis of the role of irish language in the struggle against the supremacy of England in the 20th century

2008 - The Witness Examination of Public Inquiries: A Case of Argumentative Dialogue [Relazione in Atti di Convegno]
Cavalieri, S
abstract

2008 - “Disadvantage before the law: Bleak House”. [Articolo su rivista]
Bondi, Marina; Cavalieri, Silvia
abstract

The paper focuses on the representation of interaction in courtroom scenes in Dickens's Bleak House and attempts to identify the linguistic strategies employed by legal professionals to manipulate their socially disadvantaged interlocutors. In particular, the analysis focuses on how questioning can contribute to the predominance of the machinery of Justice in witness examination. Legal-lay discourse involves a complex dialogic play between two broad ways of making sense of the world: one based on the subjective reconstruction of personal experience (lay people); the other on detached analysis following logical principles (legal professionals). The tools for analysis are drawn mostly from pragmatics and conversation analysis, though adapted to the peculiarities of fictional dialogues. Lexico-grammatical features of style may be observed to interpret the peculiarities of characterization, but the focus of our attention is on language as action and interaction, as Dickens uses dialogue to show how disadvantage is not intrinsic in the formal features of one’s language but rather in the way this is interpreted by other participants and in the way the interaction is structured by those who control its management. The paper illustrates the issue with reference to the interactions between a representative of the Court and three characters representing different forms of inadequacy in their own mastery of language. The disadvantage of Mr Tangle, a lawyer concerned with the “Jarndyce and Jarndyce” suit, represents power relationships inside the discourse community and professional disadvantage due to lack of clarity (BH: 7). The questioning of Mrs Piper represents the disadvantage of ordinary people who lack awareness of courtroom conventions in the reconstruction of facts (BH: 127). The little crossing sweeper Jo represents an issue that is acquiring growing importance nowadays - the disadvantage of children before the law (BH: 128-130). This is the scene where lack of knowledge leads to reciprocal misunderstanding and rejection of the witness: the child cannot interpret the judge’s questions and the judge cannot interpret the child’s answers.The paper is organized as follows. Section 2 deals with the preliminary issue of how hierarchical control of legal procedures can create inequalities among members of the same discourse community (e.g. legal professionals). Section 3 briefly reviews literature on the disadvantage of lay-people in courtroom interaction and focuses on the role of questions, presenting a classification along a cline of coerciveness. On the basis of the classification presented, sections 4 and 5 analyse scenes of witness questioning showing different ways in which witnesses can be led astray and even rejected in examination procedures.