| 21. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-, et al.
(author)
-
Rendering the ungraspable graspable : the use of metaphors in Swedish palliative cancer care
- 2016
-
In: Palliative Medicine. - : Sage Publications. - 0269-2163 .- 1477-030X. ; 30:6, s. NP364-NP364
-
Journal article (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Good communication is of utmost importance in all forms of cancer care and especially so in the palliative context. To render the ungraspable graspable, metaphors are frequently used drawing on their capacity to capture the intangible in terms of more familiar experiences. For instance, to die from cancer can be described as ’coming to the end of a life journey’ or ’losing a battle’. Metaphors are largely language and culture specific. Today’s increasingly multicultural societies require particular awareness in order to achieve dignified, individualized palliative cancer care. This project aims to strengthen the scientific foundation for the use of metaphors in Swedish palliative cancer care. A secondary aim is to compare the use of metaphors in Sweden and the UK in order to reveal differences and similarities. Textual data are collected froma) internet-based blogs, where patients write about their illness-related emotions and experiences while being in palliative care, and fromb) interviews with patients, family and health care professionals, where the focus is to investigate what it means to live a dignified life in palliative care.The two sets of data are analyzed using both qualitative and quantitative linguistic methods. First, the Pragglejaz procedure, a well-established linguistic method for metaphor identification, is used in order to manually identify metaphorical expressions in the material, develop analytic categories adapted to the Swedish language data and ensure inter-rater reliability. Second, the material is approached by means of corpus linguistic methods. The combination of research methods is inspired by the UK-based MELC project. The data are currently being processed and the first results will be presented at the conference. The project is funded by The Kamprad Family Foundation, Sweden.
|
|
| 22. |
|
|
| 23. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-, et al.
(author)
-
The construction of knowledge, values and identities in present-day consumerism discourses : the case of perfume reviews
- 2014
-
In: CADAAD5. - Budapest : Eötvös Loránd University.
-
Conference paper (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This paper presents ongoing critical research staged against the backdrop of global consumerism, which is of continuously escalating importance, both for humanity at large and more concretely in the daily lives of individuals, where consumption choices are increasingly associated with lifestyle and identity. In order to develop an adequate model for our investigation, we focus on a limited and strategically selected material, perfume reviews, which are analysed by means of a combination of argumentation analysis and Appraisal analysis. Consumer reviews in different domains of luxury consumption are of particular interest since they concretize the ambiguity of the concept of consumerism: From the addresser perspective, consumption reviews explicitly function to protect consumers’ rights by providing advice concerning the appropriateness of consumption choices, while also, at least in the range of domains that are not immediately related to the basic necessities of life, implicitly encouraging ever-growing consumption of such excessive products. Consumption reviews also construct ambivalent recipient identities: On the one hand, seeking consumption advice construes a critical persona that is rightly sceptical of the value of products and information from producers. On the other hand, the very existence of consumer reviews in the luxury domain simultaneously invokes an uncertain consumer persona, reluctant to rely on personal taste and therefore in need of guidance. Importantly, these ambivalent identities operate in an environment where what is seen as the basic necessities of life is an ever-changing construction, constantly renegotiated in accordance with both explicit and implicit socio-cultural norms and expectations. The analytical model developed for the current project is subsequently intended to be applicable to a larger corpus of consumer reviews from different domains with the ultimate goal of being able to generalize across present-day consumerism discourses and thus contribute to exploring what we see as a human identity crisis of the 21st century that leads to increasing commodification of our identities.
|
|
| 24. |
- Hommerberg, Charlotte, 1960-
(author)
-
Using the Appraisal model for analysis of wine reviews : benefits and challenges
- 2013
-
In: Appraisal Symposium 2013.
-
Conference paper (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This presentation will report on a study of the discourse of wine reviewing, specifically the wine reviews of Robert Parker, a US wine writer whose views are purportedly so influential as to have substantially changed tastes and preferences across the global wine market. The study sought to provide an account of how Parker’s reviews worked representationally, evaluatively and argumentatively, with a view to understanding the terms under which readers are positioned vis-à-vis wine and its appreciation by this influential critic.The field of wine appreciation is highly specialised both in terms of the experiential “reality” of wine production and in terms of its “aesthetics” – the rarefied systems of taste and value by which individual wines are applauded or criticised. This presentation will report on the use of the system of Attitude, as proposed in the Appraisal literature, as a means of describing the specialised “aesthetics” of Parker’s wine appreciation and hence of providing insights into how these reviews work evaluatively.One significant outcome of the study to be reported is the finding that the attitudinal system of Appreciation, as outlined by White (2001) and by Martin and White (2005), could not accommodate all the meanings by which wine is positively or negative assessed in Parker’s reviews. Accordingly, additional subcategories were introduced into the Appreciation taxonomy. For example, the sub categories of “Intensity”, “Persistence” (and “Maturity”) were proposed as new sub types of Composition, alongside Balance and Complexity. This was to capture additional dimensions of meaning by which the taste of wine was evaluated with respect to the way it was made or with respect to the way in which the contributing flavours and aromas of wine held together or complemented each other. The paper will discuss the reasons for these new sub categories and what was involved theoretically and methodologically in their formulation.Another point of interest emerging from the study which will be addressed in the presentation is the apparent attitudinal ambiguity, vagueness or under-specification of many of the evaluative terms used in wine reviews. This is a highly specialised domain in which reviewers such as Parker are apparently authorized to use terms in a way unique to the field and to create their own attitudinal lexicon, as they grapple to articulate all the subtle nuances of taste, “feel” and aroma which they detect in the wine. This means that the precise meanings of some terms are often difficult to determine, especially for any readers who come across this type of writing for the first time.The presentation, then, will provide an account of how Parker disseminates a particular specialist and novel system of attitudinal valeur for the evaluative description of wine, and employs this in what is apparently a rhetorically very successful manner – i.e. one which sees him lauded as the US’s preeminent wine critic who influences the preferences of wine drinkers across the world. Thus both the attitudinal repertoire and the persuasive structures and techniques he employs to position readers vis-à-vis his assessments will be discussed. The presentation will be relevant to any who have a particular interest in winespeak, and of more general interest to those interested in how the language’s meaning making potential may be extended to accommodate novel domains of attitudinal assessment. It will also interest those concerned with the on-going formulation of the Appraisal framework and with the possibility that its taxonomies may need to be modified or extended in order to deal with meanings encountered in discourse domains not previously dealt with by Appraisal analysts.
|
|
| 25. |
|
|
| 26. |
|
|
| 27. |
|
|
| 28. |
- Paradis, Carita, et al.
(author)
-
We drink with our eyes first: The web of sensory perceptions, aesthetic experiences and mixed imagery in wine reviews
- 2016
-
In: Mixing metaphor. - Amsterdam : John Benjamins Publishing Company. - 9789027202109 ; , s. 179-202
-
Book chapter (peer-reviewed)abstract
- This chapter analyzes the language resources that writers have at their disposal to describe their experience of the web of sensory perceptions that are evoked in the wine tasting practice. The task of the writer is to provide a mental understanding of the sensations as well as a prehension of the experiences. We show that this involves the weaving together of the senses, starting with the sight of the wine followed by a description that is iconic with the wine tasting procedure. The descriptors are systematically used cross-modally both through ontological cross-overs and through longer stretches of mixed imagery. We also show how the socio-cultural context of wine consumption correlates with the types of imagery used in wine descriptions.
|
|
