This thesis explores the text-compositional options that are available for the construction of university-style lectures. In doing so, it employs techniques developed by Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) to investigate how lectures are structured in terms of “genre” and the related issue of what is termed “hierarchy of periodicity”. It applies these techniques to the analysis of a small selection of university lectures to explore the ways in which, and the degree to which, these texts are structured as genres and the extent to which they are simultaneously structured by waves of foreshadowing and reiteration (or periodicity). As to the possible conclusions that might be reached from this type of analysis, this thesis will propose that the principles of “hierarchy of periodicity” and “genre complexes” are likely to be important options for structuring in university lectures, since all of the texts analyzed were found to be structured by such mechanisms. It will also proposes that lectures, although forms of speech, are structured in ways that are closer to forms of writing and that lectures as a set of texts can be categorized by the extent to which they display or do not display, the text-compositional arrangements of such (written) texts.

This study explores the relationship between the ‘sense’ of the prepositions over, into and through and the combined ‘form’ of their preceding and following nouns, using the hypothesis that the co-occurring nouns can predict different senses of the prepositions. It uses concepts drawn from both corpus linguistics and cognitive linguistics, in particular drawing on theories of phraseology formulated by Sinclair and others and on theories of preposition meaning formulated by Langacker and Tyler. 1,366 instances of the use of the prepositions from the Ice-GB corpus were examined. The results indicate a relationship between the senses of prepositions and their co-occurring nouns together with some features of their linguistic behaviour. Over, into and through have similar patterns when their trajector and landmark are combined. The thesis draws on statistical information regarding Human, Concrete object and Abstract object classifications to explore the distribution of sense of over. It uses equivalent information relating to into and through to reinforce and amend the semantic networks for these prepositions proposed by Lakoff and by Tylor and Evans.

This thesis uses corpus tools and methods to explore how the enunciations of White House spokespersons are intertextually informed by the enunciations (including their questions at White House press meetings) journalists under institutional constraints, by studying a corpus consisting of texts created by both spokespersons (transcripts of White House press conferences) and journalists (newspaper editorials/articles downloaded from New York Times online version). It sheds light on an important reason behind the lack of corpus studies in exploring intertextuality—there is no clear material connexion between corpus linguistics and intertextuality—based on the observation in the literature that intertextuality involves a mental process (e.g.: Kristeva 1980) while corpus linguistics is based on concrete language samples (e.g.: Sinclair 1991; Tognini- Bonelli 2001). It thus introduces the notion of intertext (a collection of text segments which refer to / indicate the same conceptual area(s)) as the material connection between the corpus approach and intertextuality and exemplifies how this notion and its features contribute to the exploration of intertextuality, by the analysis of two words used as prominent examples, namely, timetable and troops. It also highlights the claim for institutional talks that participants have different preferences in selecting the words they use (Heritage 1997), pointing out that participants within an institutional talk make their lexical choices under the impact of both institutional constraints and their interlocutors’ intertextual influence. Finally, it challenges the traditional idea of institutional interaction between spokespersons and journalists, showing that this interaction does not stop immediately when a press conference ends; rather, there are subsequent indirect interactions between them via newspaper articles/editorials.

Business case report writing is a common requirement on academic business programmes. In order to inform language-based pedagogical support, this thesis set out to explore the linguistic characteristics of these case reports and to evaluate different approaches to the teaching and learning of business case report writing. Analysis of a specially constructed case report corpus (125,000 words) consisting of 53 postgraduate NS and NNS business reports, combined with confirmatory analysis of BAWE\(^1\) corpus business case reports, identified common report features as impersonal style, high levels of explicit structure, low citation levels and business specialism-dependent lexis. Three obligatory rhetorical moves were identified (orientation, analysis, advisory) and five optional moves (methodology, options and alternatives, summary and consolidation, supplementary supporting information and reflection), moves being realized through diverse structural components with significant variability observed in optional move deployment and move realization dependent on a range of factors, in particular business specialism, suggesting the value of specialism-based pedagogy. Study of case report options and alternatives move structures identified multiple rhetorical components, exhibiting high degrees of cyclicity. Genre learning experiments demonstrated learning-approach dependent increases in move, modal verb and lexical deployment, with both directed and undirected approaches to genre model study supporting effective pedagogy. \(^1\) British Academic Written English corpus (2008)

A very great part of this essay is taken up with the discussion of questions about the ordinary meaning of various words and longer expressions. None the less, this is neither a piece of amateur psychology nor a criticism of uses of words in any literary aspect, but an authentic philosophical study. To give the investigation of meanings the amount of attention I have given is inevitable in any work written from the special philosophical point of view which this essay is intended to illustrate. In reaching this point of view I have been more influenced by the writings and teaching of professor G. E. Moore than by any other single agency.

In the contemporary globalized world, translation plays a key role in sharing news across the globe, in particular in the age of multimedia, where meaning is transferred through various modes and genres. This study focuses on two Arab Spring speeches of Mummar Algaddafi’s and Hosni Mubarak’s and their translations in different media. The thesis initially conducts a comparative study of the source texts (STs), including a textual/contextual analysis drawing on Norman Fairclough’s Critical Discourse Analysis, and on Gunther Kress’ multimodal analysis. This is followed by examining the target texts (TTs) to investigate the inventible changes that occur during the translation process, particularly if the translation involves not only a transfer of meaning from Arabic to English but also from mode to mode (such as, speaking to writing) and genre to genre (a political speech to a newspaper article). The thesis introduces the Multimodal Translation Analysis model to investigate the following aspects of the TTs: linguistic aspects of the TTs, the TT’s multimodal qualities, and, drawing on Mona Baker’s narrative theory, the role of dominant narratives in the shaping of the TT.

Research into modality has tended to focus on modal auxiliary verbs (modals) at the expense of other forms that may express modal meaning. This thesis takes a phraseological, exploratory approach to the investigation of modal meaning by focusing on modal expressions with verbs with wh-clause complementation (the V wh pattern). The approach first tests the hypothesis that the pattern is associated with markers of modal meaning and then goes on to conduct a concordance analysis of samples of frequently-occurring V wh verbs taken from the British National Corpus. This analysis first categorizes these verbs into semantic sets and then explores which realizations of different types of modal meaning – obligation, volition, potential, and uncertainty – are most often found with verbs in particular sets. The presentation of the results of this analysis also involves a discussion of how exponents of modal meaning other than modals extend the range of expression available to users of English, indicating what an exclusive focus on modals will tend to overlook.

This thesis is the first book length study dedicated to exploring D.H. Lawrence’s concept of blood-consciousness primarily alongside his fiction. Blood-consciousness will be identified as Lawrence’s individual philosophy of the unconscious which he developed throughout his life. Chapter One foregrounds what blood-consciousness is, and different aspects of this philosophy in order to establish the basis of the discussions that will follow in relation to Lawrence’s fiction. Chapter Two considers how Lawrence creates a new kind of character in The Rainbow through a blood-conscious flux which is likened to the theories of Henri Bergson. Chapter Three focuses upon the crisis of mental-consciousness in Women in Love, also incorporating the ideas of F.W.H. Myers. Chapter Four evaluates the portrayal of Mexican blood-consciousness in The Plumed Serpent. This involves identifying what the primitive means for Lawrence in a reading of Franz Fanon, and questioning to what extent blood-consciousness is a progressive term in the light of postcolonial studies. Chapter Five provides a reading of the blood-conscious marriage of ‘A Propos’ in correspondence with Lady Chatterley’s Lover. Finally, the Conclusion evaluates the difficulties Lawrence faced in envisioning blood-consciousness and putting it into language.

This study relates corpus-driven discourse analysis to the concept of collaborative knowledge construction. It demonstrates that the traditional synchronic perspective of meaning in corpus linguistics needs to be complemented by a diachronic dimension. The fundamental assumption underlying this work is that knowledge is understood not within the traditional epistemological framework but from a radical social epistemological perspective, and that incremental knowledge about an object of the discourse corresponds to continual change of meaning of the lexical item that stands for it. This stance is based on the assumption of the discourse as a self-referential system that uses paraphrase as a key device to construct new knowledge. Knowledge is thus seen as the result of collaboration between the members of a discourse community. The thesis presents, in great detail, case studies of asynchronous computer-mediated communication that allow a comprehensive categorisation of a wide range of paraphrase types. It also investigates overt and covert signs of intertextuality linking a new paraphrase to previous contributions. The study then discusses ways in which these new insights concerning the process of collaborative knowledge construction can have an impact on teaching methodologies.

Recontextualisation involves repetition and change; it is central to police work. Officers routinely transform the words of the legal institution by explaining them to lay people and they routinely transform the words of lay people for institutional use. This thesis explores police officers’ transformations of written and spoken language in two situations. First, in explaining the rights of detainees in custody and secondly, in collecting witness’ spoken accounts during investigations. The forms and functions of recontextualisation in police work are illustrated through the analysis of naturally occurring data, ethnographic observations and qualitative interviews. The investigation shows that recontexutalisations in these legal contexts are characterised by personalisation, collaboration and appropriation. Through personalisation, officers and detainees make rights texts relevant to detainees’ decisions. Through collaboration, officers share practices amongst themselves and create new formulations with lay people. Finally, through personalisation, routine procedures become vehicles for wide-ranging interpersonal and experiential work. Both officers and detainees exhibit sophisticated metalinguistic awareness, reflecting on their own recontextualisation practices and other practices that they encounter. The thesis concludes that recontextualisation in the police station is not simply about transmission of information and that its many other levels of meaning might usefully be recognised.