Variations in Specialized Genres Standardization and Popularization Vijay K. Bhatia / Eleonora Chiavetta / Silvana Sciarrino (eds.) Variations in Specialised Genres Europäische Studien zur Textlinguistik herausgegeben von Kirsten Adamzik (Genf) Martine Dalmas (Paris) Jan Engberg (Aarhus) Wolf-Dieter Krause (Potsdam) Arne Ziegler (Graz) Band 14 Vijay K. Bhatia / Eleonora Chiavetta / Silvana Sciarrino (eds.) Variations in Specialized Genres Standardization and Popularization Bibliografische Information der Deutschen Nationalbibliothek Die Deutsche Nationalbibliothek verzeichnet diese Publikation in der Deutschen Nationalbibliografie; detaillierte bibliografische Daten sind im Internet über http: / / dnb.dnb.de abrufbar. © 2015 · Narr Francke Attempto Verlag GmbH + Co. KG Dischingerweg 5 · D-72070 Tübingen Das Werk einschließlich aller seiner Teile ist urheberrechtlich geschützt. 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Internet: www.narr.de E-Mail: info@narr.de Druck: Docupoint GmbH, Magdeburg Printed in Germany ISSN 1860-7373 ISBN 978-3-8233-6833-5 Contents Introduction ............................................................................................................................. 7 Part I Theoretical and Methodological Themes Marina Bondi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia) Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement in Popular History .................................................................................................................................... 13 Giuliana Garzone (University of Milano) The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation ............................................... 37 Peter Kastberg (Aarhus University) Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ ................................................... 63 Christopher Williams (University of Foggia) Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse: Some Recent Developments ................................................................................................ 81 Part II Issues in Specific Domains and Contexts Patrizia Anesa (University of Bergamo) Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial ............ 95 Richard E. Burket (University of Palermo) Competing Credibilities: The Impact of the Popularization of Courtroom Science on Public Confidence in the U.S. Legal System ..............................................................115 Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino (University of Salento) Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks ......................131 Eleonora Chiavetta (University of Palermo) The Sociability of Learning in the Botanical Writings of Priscilla Wakefield ............153 Susan Kermas (University of Salento) The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type ..............................................165 Adriano Laudisio (University of Naples) Popularization of Medical and Legal Language in TV Series .......................................183 Contents 6 Paola Clara Leotta (University of Catania) The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media: Questioning the Boundaries of Genre..............................................................................197 Giula Adriana Pennisi (University of Palermo) White Paper on Governance: EU Attempt to Popularize Legal Discourse? ...............213 Monica Rizzo (University of Palermo) Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information, from a Binding Regulation to an Informative Brochure ...............................................229 Silvana Sciarrino (University of Palermo) A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Laws Concerning Women: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon’s Contribution to Improve the Legal Status of Mid-Victorian Married Women...................................................................................251 Sole Alba Zollo (University of Naples) Raise your Hand against Smacking! Raising Awareness on Children’s Rights through Popularization ......................................................................................................261 Introduction Integrity and versatility are two of the most important and yet least researched areas in specialized communication, in particular, the contestation between standardized discursive actions for specialist audiences, on the one hand, and their popular variations for non-specialist readership, on the other. In recent years this struggle between standardization and hybridity, especially in the contexts of disciplinary discursive domains, such as the natural sciences, law, and business, has been the focus of increasing attention in discourse studies. This edited volume offers a set of carefully solicited papers from some of the well-established scholars in the field focusing on the specialist knowledge transmission through genre variation focusing particularly on the issues of integrity, versatility, in particular hybridity, is one such initiative. The volume includes some of the important findings of a National Research Project that has involved researchers from several Italian and foreign universities, in particular those from the University of Palermo and the University of Salento. The main focus of this initiative is on the analysis of discursive popularization in the contexts and domains of natural sciences, law and commerce, viewed in a diachronic perspective. Most of the scholars contributing to this venture have focused in their studies on the creative transformation, hybridization, and even bending of genres used to popularize scientific, legal and commercial discourses for different communicative purposes and audiences, thus extending the conventional genre boundaries to disseminate specialized knowledge. This proliferation of specialized knowledge has indeed created a growing need to convey expert knowledge to a variety of addressees, with different levels of shared understanding and expertise. Such disciplinary knowledge can only be conveyed through various subtle manipulations of generic conventions keeping in mind the aims, the users, the media, the social contexts, and the domain which specific knowledge is associated with. More specifically, the contributions investigate the mediation of knowledge concerning specialized discourse through popular genres to follow the lexical, syntactic, rhetorical and stylistic evolution of popular genres concerning the scientific and legal discourse, often focusing on the process of interdiscursive re-contextualization, reformulation, reframing and resemiotisation of specialized discourses. What makes this book unique is the fact that it combines three strands of research which are currently debated in linguistic scholarship - the issue of integrity and versatility of genres, the issues of specialized discourse, and the issue of knowledge dissemination, thus giving emphasis to the specific interrelationship among the three research lines, which has not been given enough attention in current published literature. Another feature of this edited volume is the fact that it combines the domains of specialized interdisciplinary discourse, such as science, law, and business often comparing them, thus un- Introduction 8 derpinning an interesting trend in the treatment of socio-pragmatic space in various academic and professional contexts. The book will be of interest to academic researchers and scholars from these three important strands of scholarship, those interested in genre theory, specialized discourses, and scholars looking for knowledge dissemination in specific interdisciplinary domains. The volume offers complementary and convergent approaches which range from more theoretical issues (including methodological approaches)to case studies that exemplify the theoretical issues identified. The more theoretical and methodological background forms the first section of the volume, whereas the specific case studies of knowledge construction and dissemination tend to clarify and illustrate such theoretical and methodological issues in the second section. The fundamental question about the meaning and the functions of popularization in different areas of knowledge is the starting point of the paper by Marina Bondi. She highlights how important it has become to pay attention to the challenges and opportunities of disseminating knowledge, recognizing the different purposes of knowledge communication in specific disciplines and contexts. She analyses the process of mediation to bridge knowledge asymmetries and of re-contextualization in the field of the humanities. Her study focuses on the resources of re-contextualizing in the narrative of popular history, paying particular attention to the role of time deictics. Indeed, recontextualizing something for the reader does not simply mean to provide the basic knowledge, but to highlight the importance of the area investigated as well as its relevance to the everyday life of the reader and to the communities. In “The Legal Blog (Blawg) as a Vehicle for the Dissemination of Legal Knowledge”, Giuliana Garzone investigates the so called blawgs, i.e. blogs used for the discussion of knowledge in the legal field and used for various different purposes, such as academic and professional duties, scholarly exchanges, etc. The blawgs analyzed are aimed at circulating legal knowledge to the general public, illustrating legal concepts and providing coverage of important cases. The core generic features of the blawg are described (in particolar those that are constitutive of the genre) and at the same time elements of variation are identified as a function of the characteristics and purposes of the different types of blawgs. Peter Kastberg discusses and critically evaluates appreciatons of what he defines ‘the other’, that is the layperson, when it comes to communicating science. Starting from an analysis of how science is generally communicated to a non-expert public, and offering a brief history of ideas of recent Public Understanding of Science research, Kastberg gives a critical interpretation and evaluation of how the ‘other’ is appreciated in various science communicative activities. The paper ends by deriving a rudimentary, diagnostic, 2 nd border apparatus which may be used as a reference point to consider ‘the other’ in connection with science communication res and in real-life science Introduction 9 communication activities, earch. The issues of motivation and relevance become then fundamental. In “Comparing the Popularization of Law and the Popularization of Science”, Christopher Williams analyses, also from a historicalperspective, the possible reasons why ‘popularization’ is more used together with ‘science’than with ‘law’.The author argues that this is partly the resul tof the predominant role that science has in the school curriculum, ascompared with law perceivedas a specialist subject for adults. This in turn is linkedto the increasing importance of science and technology in western society since the Industrial Revolution . Viceversa, ‘law’ is more frequently connected with ‘Plain language’ partly because of the widely perceived need to rewrite the oldfashioned legalese so as to make it more attractive. In her paper, Patrizia Anesa analyzes the techniques and strategies used by a criminal jury to present and discuss scientific evidence and scientific notions, with particular reference to expert testimony. Her analysis is based on both quantitative and qualitative procedures and makes use of analytical tools such as Antconc and Wmatrix. The analysis shows how science is constantly discussed and rephrased, and scientific terminology replaced by ordinary words, or explained through the use of figures of speech, especially metaphors. Also Richard E. Burket’s research is centered on the popularization of scientific discourse in the context of legal discourse. His paper considers the ramifications of the way(s) science has been marshalled in service of the law. His main focus is to examine the role played by media representations of expert scientific testimony in the courtroom in the construction of public confidence in the legal system. As the title of their paper suggests, “Hedging in Marketing ResearchArticles and Introductory Textbooks”, Antonella Calogiuri and Grazia Marisa Saracino’s focus is on the rethorical practises employed in University textbook and research genres, namely on the comparison between the use of some relevant linguistic features in a corpus of textbook chapters in the academic field of Marketing and in a corpus of research articles in the same discipline. In particular, the author examines the use of hedging in the main grammatical classes used to express epistemic modality, whose forms, functions, frequencies are studied with the aim of contributing to a better understanding of the role played by hedging in the two genres investigated. Chiavetta analyses the role played by Priscilla Wakefield (1751-1832) in popularizing botany, and particularly the taxonomic system of the Swedish naturalist Carl Linnaeus, in Eighteenth century England. Prominetn as a writer of educational books for women and children, Priscilla Wakefield wrote botany books in an informal familiar format. Giving unlearned young women the possibility of accessing botanical issues. The familiar format used by women writers oft he period embraced both dialogues and letters. To encourage women’s learning and self-education, Wakefield chose the letter format in Introduction 10 her Introduction to Botany (1796), with its conversational style which belonged to a culture of sociability and agreeability. Susan Kermas focuses her paper on the genre of herbals, which appear particularly interesting from a socio-cultural viewpoint since on the one hand, they offered (and still do) a wide array of useful information to physicians, gardeners and housekeepers, and on the other, provided relevant information for the recognition and propagation of plants, as well as for their preparation. Kermas explores herbals from the 16th to the 21st century from a multiperspective model of discourse analysis and through her exam, she underlines the gradual specialization of the genre, also tracing the gradual development of medicine and botany as separate sciences. The aim of Adriano Laudisio’s research is to analyse the use of specialized discourse in very popular TV series and how the power ralationships are ‘translated’ from the source language to the target language. The paper focuses on legal and medical languages, in the TV series The Good Wife and Grey’s Anatomy. As regards medical language, the focus in on the difference between communication among experts and communication from an expert to a nonexpert interlocutor; as regards legal English, the focus in on the use of court terminology and standard formulae. Paola Clara Leotta investigates psychological information in different genres of popularization such as proper news articles, interviews, ‘Problem Pages’ and the Internet - the latter holds a unique position of influence over an audience of non-specialists for the decodification of psychological language - and questions the boundaries of psychological discourse in the above-mentioned genres. The final outcome is a list of explanatory descriptions that has created a number of stable genres, where metaphors play a prominent role. Both in the magazines and on the Net, popularization combines interaction and information. In her paper, Giulia Pennisi explores how European institutions re-shape their discourse(s) in the field of governance in order to provide communicative response to the global socio-economic change and the need to encounter the general public on issues that are not usually accessible. Her research is carried out on a corpus of EU texts organized in a diachronic perspective. The legislative documents of the corpus are presented as a combination of different discourses strategically exploited to mould the nroms/ conventions typical of public documents such as White Papers and consultation documents to make the production of the legal texts available and easily understood by the lay public. It is well known that the linguistic and conceptual complexity of legal language gives rise to the problem of the accessibility to legal documents. As Monica Rizzo points out in her paper, the problem is even stronger within a supranational community like the European Union, where the same legal rules must be expressed in all the official languages. The paper compares Eurolanguage and standard legal English in order to investigate the influence of Introduction 11 the Plain Language Movement on the drafting of the European legislation. It also focuses on intralingual translation as a tool for the popularization of legal discourse. Silvana Sciarrino analyzes the three editions of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon’s pamphlet - A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Laws Concerning Women - an account of the legal status of adult English women in Mid.-Victorian England, as found in Wharton’s Exposition. She produced an abstract of her source, having in mind the three rules recommended by Wharton (“compression, avoiding obscurity and yielding information easily and effectively”) and adopting a strategy based on implied argument. The outcome was a clear and concise way of making women aware of the laws under which they lived, all the more so as the work included an explanation of some legal terms used. As a matter of fact, the pamphlet was in itself a form of popularization. Following the tradition of Critical Discourse Analysis and Social semiotics, Sole Alba Zollo investigates the verbal and non-verbal strategies present in the Council of Europe’s campaigns for the protection of children’s rights. The analysis is conducted on a corpus collected from the Council of Europe’s website. The corpus includes a variety of text types, such as booklets, brochures, videoclips, used in the most significant campaigns on children’s rights. A pragmatic comparison between source legal texts and target texts allows to identify the linguistic and visual elements exploited to simplify source genres in order to communicate legal discourse on human rights to the European lay public. The Editors Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement in Popular History Marina Bondi (University of Modena and Reggio Emilia, Italy) 1 Introduction: specialist vs. non-specialist genres The current proliferation of specialized knowledge and its centrality to human life have triggered a growing need for dissemination among non-experts (or experts in other fields). It is increasingly important to pay attention to the challenges and opportunities of disseminating knowledge, recognizing the different purposes of knowledge communication in specific disciplines and contexts. How do experts communicate their specialist knowledge to nonexperts? How do they make it relevant to their new audiences? What does “popularizing” mean and what are its functions in different areas of knowledge? Specialist discourse needs to adopt different strategies when addressing diverse types of lay audiences. This may mean writing for addressees with a different professional or academic background (e.g. explaining the world of finance to non-economists) or belonging to a specific cultural community (e.g. disseminating local culture to a globalized audience), or at a different stage of cognitive development (e.g. explaining physics to children) (Myers 1989). The diverse types of readers, with their specific background knowledge, are quite obviously at the core of the distinctive features of science and popular science. Discourse analytic approaches to the question (see for example Bensaude-Vincent 2001; Myers 2003; Calsamiglia/ Ferrero 2003, Minelli/ Pagano 2006) have often related language features to the asymmetry of relations between the various voices involved, thus looking both at writer-reader relations and at the relations between quoting and quoted voices (Minelli/ Pagano 2006: 641). The process may also include a number of successive stages, as for example when scientists ‘reformulate’ their messages for specialized journalists (Ciapuscio 2003). Specialist and non-specialist genres may differ quantitatively and qualitatively in their language features or in the textual and pragmatic functions of these features. Myers’ work on lexical cohesion (1991), for example, has shown that “readers of scientific articles must have a knowledge of lexical relations to see the implicit cohesion, while readers of popularisations must see the cohesive relations to infer lexical relations” (1991: 5). Similarly, Varttala (1999) has looked at variation in the communicative functions of hedges, showing that “hedging, an indication of textual precision and interpersonal negative politeness in scholarly peer communication may be used as a textual Marina Bondi 14 tool for both imprecision and precision as well as a feature of interpersonal positive politeness in popularised communication between specialist writers and non-specialist readers” (1999: 178). Focusing first of all on the purpose (or purposes) of popularizing may be a good starting point for an understanding of what happens in the mediation of knowledge. Nwogu (1991) has shown that journalistic accounts of medical research typically contextualize the research question in the world of the reader, constructing a problem-solution pattern oriented to the needs of the general reader, instead of those of the world of research. As suggested by Moirand (1999a, 1999b, 2003) in her studies on popular science, rather than seeing popularizing simply as a rhetorical strategy meant to favour an understanding of science, we should acknowledge that scientific discourse in the media has a different purpose. The shift from scientific to mediatic explanation is a shift towards explaining “the social meaning” of science and bringing into relation “scientifically unrelated matters”(2003: 197). Research articles and popularizations can thus be seen as different social practices originating from different settings of knowledge circulation (Calsamiglia/ Ferrero 2003: 147) and ultimately produced by different processes of re-contextualization (Calsamiglia/ Van Dijk 2004). Communicating knowledge to members of different discourse communities requires “mediation” across knowledge asymmetries (Kastberg 2011), but also an understanding of the different purposes that may characterize general interest in specialized knowledge. The process can also be seen as one of bridging across discourse communities. These may share forms of intercommunication, but will eventually bring to the area of interaction different background knowledge and different purposes. The bridging metaphor is useful in many ways. It reminds us for example that the bridging process is not always mediated by a “third party”: if the scientific journalist is a common example of a professional mediating expert knowledge for a general audience, the case of the specialist addressing the wider audience is becoming more and more common. The presence or absence of a third party may be extremely relevant from the point of view of the different discursive identities at play, but there may be common strategies in forms of mediated or unmediated communication of expert knowledge. The bridging metaphor also helps us see the process more clearly as one of finding a “third space” (Bhabha 1990) rather than a third party: a space where discourse communities with different backgrounds and interests can meet. The interaction between the writer and the reader thus becomes a form of “inter-discourse communication” (Scollon/ Scollon 1995), i.e. communication that cuts across the boundaries of discourse communities characterized by different types of background and purposes. The notion of a third space does not only allow us to group together forms that are or are not mediated by a third party. It also reminds us of the fact that knowledge has its centres and its peripheries and that there may be a whole range of purposes in disseminating Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 15 knowledge, including the aim of perpetuating a specific view point or reinforcing values and expectations. The process of re-contextualization is particularly intriguing when studied in the field of the humanities, where specialist knowledge appears to be more readily available to the wider public as such. When you look at history or art rather than chemistry or physics, the need to ‘simplify’ becomes less obvious and the process is more easily seen in terms of making history or art relevant or interesting for the non-specialist reader too. Re-contextualizing things for the reader is not just a matter of giving the basic preliminary knowledge, but rather a process of highlighting the value of the area investigated, its relevance to the everyday life of readers, or to the communities and identities that characterize their personal experience. An area of discourse that seems to become particularly important in this process is that of the reader’s engagement (Hyland 2001, 2004, 2005), i.e. the resources of inter-subjective positioning, the means by which interaction with the reader is achieved. Elements like hedges, reporting verbs, reader pronouns, personal asides, appeals to shared knowledge, directives and questions have been variously investigated with a view to defining the role of interpersonal discourse in academic writing (Hyland 2001, 2004; Hyland/ Tse 2004). Hyland (2010) discusses the relationship of popular science to professional science in terms of “proximity” - a writer’s control of rhetorical features which display both authority as an expert and a personal position towards issues in an unfolding text (2010: 117). He looks at differences in the organisation of discourse, in the values and focus of the argument, as well as in the framing of information, interpreting all of these features in the light of the different functions of popular and professional science. Most fundamentally proximity helps science writers transform beliefs into knowledge, producing evidence for claims to persuade specialists of the reliability of their interpretations and the rigour of their method. Popular science, in contrast, is concerned with establishing the novelty and relevance of a topic to celebrate scientific results, with their validity taken for granted”(2010: 119). How do interpersonal resources contribute to re-contextualizing knowledge for the non-specialist reader? It is my contention that this may depend largely on the basic epistemology and ethos of the discipline, as well as on the purpose of the re-contextualization. In re-contextualizing history, for example, historians addressing a wider audience can count on the reader’s familiarity with the formats of narrative playing such a central role in history writing. On the other hand, they will tend to use sources much more flexibly: they leave aside the thick layers of references usually identifying all the primary and secondary sources consulted, while just directing the reader’s attention to highly selected evidence easily available. Similarly, re-contextualizing history for a non-specialist audience will take into account the readers’ purposes in reading ‘popular history’, whether they Marina Bondi 16 are general citizens looking for cultural highlights or people with an interest in understanding the roots of their community. The role played by identity in historical reading will soon be apparent, whether we are thinking in terms of a national, supra national, regional identity, or issues of gender, social class or even general interests (be it gardening or architecture, we may be interested in reading about its history). But how do writers make history more relevant to the reader’s needs? What language processes are at play? The wide range of existing formats of knowledge dissemination may draw from neighbouring discourses in different ways. An obvious field to draw on is journalism. Media discourse offers the potential use of narrative frameworks (with characters, events, setting and narrator) as well as quoted sources (with the typical attributive patterns often used in popularizing, cf. Bondi 2013). Instructional texts will also offer useful tools: examples, reformulations and explanations (Calsamiglia/ van Dijk 2004; Garzone 2006: 89). As I have shown elsewhere (Bondi 2013, 2014), popular history often makes careful use of deixis in aligning the reader’s perspective with the writer’s or even that of historical characters. Deixis - of person, place and time - obviously plays a major role in pragmalinguistic approaches to the representation of objects, places and events in discourse, ever since Karl Bühler’s seminal work on deictic expressions (Sprachtheorie, 1934). Deictics depend crucially on the context of use, i.e. when, where and by whom they are used, placing the ‘I’, ‘here’ and ‘now’ at the centre of the spatio-temporal axis of discourse or the “origo of the deictic field”(Bühler 1982: 13). In standard deictic uses, the origo is the ‘here and now’ of the speaker, but it may also be identified with the ‘here and now’ of the hearer or of the speaker/ hearer at a different time from coding time, typically at the time of an event reported. As noticed by Ehlich (1982, 2007), however, many deictics do not refer to the extralinguistic context, but to the context built up by the text. Anaphora and deixis are distinguished in terms of different cognitive processes in relation to the information focus: deixis establishes a new attention focus for the hearer (1982: 325), whereas anaphora continues a previously established focus (1982: 330). Deixis can thus be seen first of all as an attention-managing device that the writer uses to direct the reader’s attention to new referents. Pragmatic approaches have also looked at the need for the speaker and the hearer to coordinate their perspectives in communication and shown particular interest in the setting up of deictic spaces, metaphorical and non-metaphorical, visual and geographical (Klein 1982: 162) with the help of verbal signals, gestures and/ or our knowledge of the world. Building on studies of time and place orientation, recent socio-anthropological approaches extend to non-literary narratives the Bakhtinian notion of chronotope - “the intrinsic connectedness of temporal and spatial relationships that are artistically expressed in literature” (Bakhtin 1981: 84)and expand its scope. Agha (2007: 320) talks of “‘cultural chronotopes’, namely de- Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 17 pictions of place-time-and-personhood to which social interactants orient when they engage each other through discursive signs of any kind”. Agha points at historical periodization as a typical example of chronotope: talking of West Germany vs. East Germany would imply referring to a specific time and place, and would normally “position” the speaker/ writer as to the opposition (with reference to his/ her own chronotope). Schiffrin (2009: 422) also points at the possible intersection or blending of narrative, description and argument, while putting forward “an approach to narrative in which time/ space coordinates and descriptions within the storyworld create a blend of textual features by which a speaker can construct both personal and place identity” (2009: 423). In the re-contextualizing of history, time, place and identity seem to play a major role. Lexical elements identifiable as reader’s pronouns and potential references to a spatio-temporal framework are particularly frequent in popular texts (Bondi 2013). By careful use of deictic spaces, readers and their world are turned into the privileged point of view from which specialized historical knowledge is looked at. The present study looks at deictic references to present time in the discourse of history, exploring how they influence textual sequences and how they involve two different chronotopes: the reader’s present and the past of the historical narrative. Focusing on markers of present reference, the study is based on the assumption that deictics contribute greatly to the reader’s engagement and to the re-contextualization strategies often adopted by history. Combining the tools of discourse analysis and corpus linguistics, the analysis adopts a cross-generic perspective. The aim is to explore the process of recontextualization in the dissemination of historical knowledge through a study of journal articles and popular articles written by professional historians. This provides an opportunity to explore variation across genres produced by the same authors for different audiences. 2 Materials and methods The role of temporal deictics is explored in two corpora of different genres written by professional historians: a corpus of academic journal articles and a corpus of popularizations. The journal articles corpus (JAC) comprises over 300 articles (2.5 m words) taken from the following journals: Labour History Review (LHR), Historical Research (HR), Gender & History (GH), Journal of European Ideas (JEI), Journal of Medieval History (JMH), Journal of Interdisciplinary History (JIH), Journal of Social History (JSH), Studies in History (SH), American Quarterly (AQ), American Historical Review (AHR). The popular articles corpus (PAC) comprises 125 articles (about 330,000 words) from History Today, the most widely recognized popular history magazine in the UK. The magazine, which has been operating since 1951, publish- Marina Bondi 18 es articles written by well-known historians aimed at a general audience. History Today is taken as a case of ‘unmediated’ dissemination (or ‘direct mediation’) written by historians themselves. For comparison I also used a corpus developed at the University of Chemnitz (the SPACE corpus- Specialised and Popular ACademic English) comprising a set of articles from popular and specialized publications dealing with the same research. In particular I used articles from physics and biology, i.e. 60 popular articles from the New Scientist dealing with physics and the corresponding 65 articles published in academic journals, 60 popular articles from the New Scientist dealing with biology and the corresponding 65 articles published in academic journals. The New Scientist, however, differs from History Today in that the authors are specialized journalists rather than scientists themselves. It is therefore a case of properly ‘mediated’ knowledge communication. The methodology adopted combines a corpus and a discourse perspective (Baker 2006; Ädel/ Reppen 2008) while focusing on the lexico-grammar of selected items. Corpus tools used were keywords and concordance analysis of selected items. Keywords are defined in a quantitative perspective as those whose frequency (‘positive’ keywords) or infrequency (‘negative’ keywords) in a text or corpus is statistically significant, when compared to the standards set by a reference corpus (Wordsmith Tools 5, Scott 2008). A preliminary analysis of frequency data offered an overview of quantitative variation as a basis for further analysis (see also Bondi/ Scott 2010). Closed-class keywords were included, as they were felt to highlight typical discursive procedures or disciplinary epistemology (Bondi 2010; Groom 2010). Time markers quite obviously have a major role in narrative texts. The dominant narrative mode of both academic and popular history reminds us that there is a focus on development in time, placing individuals and events in sequences that highlight patterns of conflict and resolution (Chatman 1978; Toolan 2001). When looking at history it is essential to distinguish the basic temporal perspectives of any narrative text: the time of the “enoncé” and the time of the “enunciation” (Benveniste 1966), the time of the “story” and the time of the writer’s (and reader’s) “discourse” (Chatman 1978). The inherently narrative nature of history (e.g. Martin/ Wodak eds. 2003; Coffin 2006; Bondi 2009) does not exclude that the interpretative role of the historian is manifested in the argumentative dimension (Coffin 2006): it simply reminds us of the two time axes/ perspectives in narrative discourse, often simplified as “time of the past” and “time of the present” in reference to history. Looking at narrative elements of academic discourse (in biology), Myers (1990: 142) distinguished a “narrative of nature”, focused on the subject matter rather than the argument of the scientist and a “narrative of scientific development”, meant to foreground the novelty and current relevance of the discovery or position presented (see also Myers 1994). We might adapt this Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 19 distinction to history identifying a somewhat ‘triple’ narrative. There is a Narrative of History, which relates to the story narrated, the historical event in focus. This is vastly dominant in academic discourse. There is also, however, a Narrative of Historiography, relating the writer’s interpretation to current historiographic debates, and thus to the academic community. Finally, there can be a Narrative Interpretation of the Present, which relates to the world of the writer and the reader, with its current discourse(s). Our own focus was first of all on elements at the intersection of lexis and grammar and at the core of textuality: text connectives or transition markers in metadiscourse studies (Ädel 2006; Dahl 2004; Hyland 2005) or Textoriented organizational units in Sinclair and Mauranen’s Linear Unit Grammar (Sinclair/ Mauranen 2006: 72), i.e. words and phrases that are used to signal the interrelations among chunks of content. Concordances of selected items - now and today, top keywords and temporal deictics - were then analyzed looking at the co-text of the nodes with a view to their textual patterns, so as to bring out their semantic and pragmatic implications (see also Bondi 2013 and 2014). In particular it was thought important to relate them to the chronotopes constructed for the writer and the reader in discourse, looking at the textual, semantic and pragmatic patterns they contributed to, thus going back to discourse analysis tools to illuminate the interplay between space, time and identity (Salvi/ Bowker 2013). 3 Preliminary overview References to time and place can act as organizational units, i.e. as markers of transition in the narrative. An overview of keywords was aimed at identifying organizational units. The figures of selected items are reported in Table 1. K-word Rank PACfrequency Pttw JAC Frequency Pttw Keyness POSITIVE KEYWORDS Ther 74 824 23 3662 15 108.58 Today 102 113 3 232 0.7 90.81 Came 121 246 7 826 3 81.31 Went 126 157 4 434 2 79.00 Now 188 306 9 1200 5 64.82 When 343 682 19 3476 14 42.89 Marina Bondi 20 Later 292 306 9 1303 5 48.14 But 533 1550 43 9006 0.37 29.57 You 629 198 6 879 4 26.25 NEGATIVE KEYWORDS Moreover 755 39 1 558 2 25.54 Also 761 528 15 4489 19 26.29 Because 838 236 7 2373 10 37.65 As 925 3108 87 24717 102 76.22 Thus 941 120 3 1888 8 103.74 Table 1 Keywords: selected items PAC showed a lower frequency of markers like moreover, also, because, as and thus, all listed as negative keywords (significantly less frequent than in the reference corpus).Among the positive keywords, on the other hand, and therefore significantly more frequent, were words like but and when, as well as many time adverbials in general and deictics. This major quantitative difference seems to suggest that in popular writing the line of argument is probably less structured, and above all more focused on problematizing (but) and sequencing than on elaborating (also, moreover, as) and explaining (because, thus). This is not surprising, giving the mean length of the popular articles (2,818.43 words), which is extremely low in comparison to the mean length of the academic articles in the JAC corpus (7,732.86). The analysis also revealed a marked presence of elements identifying the “chronotope” (see also Bondi 2012): place names and place adverbials, time references and deictics of time, space and person (there, today, now, later, you, came, went). All of these categories seemed to be very frequent in PAC, significantly more so than in JAC. In particular it could be noticed that both now and today were found within the top 30% keywords. The distinctive frequency of both adverbs in the corpus of popular history suggested further investigation of the adverbs, seen as potential markers of the dialogue between past and present that has been noticed to characterize history (Carr 1986). Concordance analysis was then aimed at identifying the textual and pragmatic functions of the adverbs. Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 21 The marked presence of references to today and now in popularizing could first of all be related to an explicit orientation to the needs of the reader. The adverbs would thus be used to contextualize the research question posed by the historian in the world of the reader. This is often the function of the journalistic “lead” introducing the article and usually anchoring it to the present in more or less explicit forms. The examples below illustrate rather extreme cases of explicitly contrasting past hopes with present reality (example 1) and more implicitly assessing the past by creating an analogy with the present, as in the relationship created between the British dilemma at St Helena and the American dilemma at Guantanamo in example 2. (ex. 1) When the British and Maori signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, Governor Hobson declared: ‘We are one people’. Today, as Professor Keith Sinclair shows, this hope has still to be realised. (PAC, The Maoris in New Zealand History) (ex. 2) When Napoleon surrendered himself to a British naval captain after his defeat at Waterloo, the victors were faced with a judicial headache. Norman MacKenzie asks was St Helena Britain’s Guantanamo Bay? (PAC, Napoleon: An Extraordinary Rendition) If this is often the typical function of the lead, closer analysis of all the occurrences, however, shows that use of now and today is rather extensive and involves the whole of the article. Concordances were studied with the aim of identifying the main functions in the text of the article. Keeping in mind the different time axes of historical discourse - the time of history and the time of discourse - the study focused first on how today and now were used to structure textual sequences. A major preliminary distinction was made between: a) cases when they marked an authentic temporal shift to the present, which would thus become the main textual topic for a specific textual move; b) cases of explanatory “flash-forward” (e.g. as can be seen today), relating to the reader’s experience, to explain the past in terms that were more understandable to the reader, while maintaining focus on interpreting the past. It was also soon found that now can be used with no real reference to the present of discourse (to the current world of the writer and the reader), but rather: c) to introduce a new step forward in the narrative (e.g. the war was now over): while being aware that the event is clearly placed in the ‘then’ of the historical narrative, the reader is invited to share the time frame of the narrative. Marina Bondi 22 From a textual point of view, then, three basic functions could be identified: transition to the present, explanatory flash-forward and focus on a new episode or landmark in the narrative (“past as present”). The three main functions are also characterized by different ways in which the reader’s perspective - and an overlap of the past and present chronotope - is involved. These are illustrated below. 4 Time axes and textual sequences 4.1 Time shift to the present: narrative interpretation of the present and present reinterpretations of the past Both today and now can be used to mark a time shift to the present. The focus can be either on current sociopolitical issues or events (in which case the past is presented as a tool for understanding the present) or on current historiographical debate (in which case history is presented as a tool for understanding past and present). The shift to the present is clearly intentional and means to lead the reader to reflect on the present as well as on the past, on the current context as well as on the historical event narrated. On the whole, time shifts to the present are much more frequent in PAC than JAC and much more clearly marked by today than now. In the case of today this function accounts for 45% of the occurrences in PAC vs 20% in JAC. In the case of now it accounts for 16% of the occurrences vs. 8% in JAC. The different narratives at play may help identify different communicative functions resulting from time shifts. When a proper topic-shift is operated, the Narrative of History gives way to a Narrative Interpretation of the Present or to the Narrative of Historiography. The two narratives - while textually operating a similar shift to the present in textual time reference - differ radically from the point of view of the interrelationship between the two chronotopes (past and present): in the first case, the chronotope of the past is used as a tool for interpreting the present, whereas in the second the chronotope of the present is used to reinterpret the past. 4.1.1 Narrative interpretation of the present: using the past to understand the present When the adverbial shifts the reader’s attention to current (mostly sociopolitical) issues (or current cultural events), the past is used to understand the present, mostly to celebrate continuity. References to the present often frame the whole narrative, typically in the opening or closing of the text. Example 3 illustrates this complex movement in the opening and closing paragraphs of an article on the Armada tapestries. Time adverbials are underlined (with deictics in italics). Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 23 (ex. 3) The recreation of the Armada Tapestries, now on display in the House of Lords, could hardly be more timely, in a number of different ways. The original series of 10 tapestries was commissio ned in the 1590s by Howard of Effingham, Lord High Admiral at the time of the Armada victory. It quickly became popular as an emblem of national identity. In 1798, when it was feared that Napoleon might cross the Channel, James Gillray was invited to produce a series of prints that ‘might rouse all the People’. One showed the tapestries being slashed and torched by a gleeful horde of marauding French. The tapestries were invoked whenever England felt herself up against the wall, as indeed she does today. […].This autumn, after a summer on display to the public, the Armada paintings will finally be hung in the Prince’s Chamber of the House of Lords, third in a series of grand rooms designed to give maximum effect to the monarch’s procession at each State Opening of Parliament. Decorated in a Tudor theme, it is placed between the glittering splendour of the Lords’ Chamber itself and the Royal Gallery, devoted to the nation’s military and naval victories. It seemed a fitting home in the Victorian age. It seems no less so today. (PAC, A Tapestry of England’s Past) (my emphasis) The first sentence - taking a current cultural event as starting point, i.e. the display of the tapestries at the House of Lords - focuses on its “timeliness” as “an emblem of national identity”. The whole paragraph shifts the time frames from the creation of the Armada tapestries at the time of the war with Spain, to their celebration at the time of the Napoleonic wars up until the present (2010), presented as a time of difficulty and inescapable conflict (with England “up against the wall”). The final paragraph of the article goes back to an insistent attention to the present (this autumn, today) through successive references to different moments of the past, from Tudor times, through each opening of Parliament to the Victorian Age and again today. National identity is thus identified in the present with forms of representative democracy rather than the Navy or the Army, but the notion is still set against a background of potential conflict and the need to stand up to the enemy for the sake of national emblems. Reference to the present is very explicit, even if no specific conflict is mentioned: the text may be referring to wavering up support for the war in Afghanistan, but does not do so overtly. The reader is not given a specific recommendation, but rather invited to find analogies for him/ herself. What is repeatedly and ostensibly stirred up, however, is national pride and trust in national institutions. 4.1.2 The narrative of historiography: the present reinterpreting the past Time shifts to the present can also focus on current historiographical debate. This function is seen more clearly at play in research articles, where time shifts to the present often introduce long sections of the article debating cur- Marina Bondi 24 rent views within the academic community (example 4). These often highlight the relevance of the topic and the position put forward by the writer. (ex. 4) A new recognition that cultural interaction at the frontiers has contributed to the making of core cultures themselves - and a new appreciation of the ways in which political margins can be turned into cultural counter-cores - turn up in every national literature reviewed here. The challenge now, I believe, is to integrate this more fluid conception of the region into a broader geo-historical vision: one where regional dynamics are articulated to those of both larger and smaller social units. (JAC, AHR) (my emphasis) In popular articles this kind of reference is more limited in frequency and scope (example 5).They are thus meant to construct shared values and context with the reader, rather than to let the reader take part in the historiographical debate. References to historians often construct their authority and credibility, illustrating the grounds on which they draw their conclusions: (ex. 5) To understand the social significance of crime, we therefore need to know why certain acts were made, or considered to be, criminal. (ex. 6) These assumptions go far to explain why historians today draw on both the ‘literary’ history of crime and on legal history. From the former they derive their concern for social context, from the latter they take the legal expertise they need to understand the significance of criminal activity. (PAC, Law and Disorder in Stuart and Hanoverian England) (my emphasis) Popular articles definitely privilege references to a generalized socio-historical present potential readers are involved in. References to research thus often substantiate the positions of the presupposed target readership on potentially contentious issues. Example 6, for instance, refers to recent research without adding much in terms of knowledge, but rather to provide further backing to a presupposed critical attitude towards apartheid policies. (ex. 7) But while there are many questions that remain unanswered and are perhaps unanswerable, recent research has provided a radical reinterpretation of South Africa’s past: a reinterpretation which challenges so many of the preconceived stereotypes which still serve to legitimate the Republic’s apartheid policies today. (PAC, South Africa - ‘The Myth of the Empty Land’) (my emphasis) References to historiography are unsurprisingly more frequent in academic discourse. Considering the occurrences of today, for example, a focus on current historiographical debate characterizes 15% of time shifts in JAC against Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 25 66% in JAC. The ratio is similar when shifts are articulated by now (16% of shifts in PAC and 50% of shifts JAC), although time shifts to the present are in general a more limited phenomenon with now. On the whole, reference to current historiographical debate plays different pragmatic functions in academic and popular history. In popular writing it typically represents the authoritativeness of historians and constructs shared values in the interaction between writers and readers. In academic writing it highlights the academic relevance of the issues dealt with and involves writers and readers in the argument as potential participants. In both cases, however, from the point of view of the textual chronotopes, the present debate is used to (re-)interpret the past through the lens of current debates, much in the same way as with the next category, where reference to the present does not establish a present narrative, but merely uses referents of the present chronotope to illuminate the historical narrative. 4.2 Explanatory Flash-forward: using the present to understand the past Another significant function of references to the present consists in relating to the reader’s experience (and the writer’s expertise), while maintaining focus on the past. The adverbs are used without really leaving the narrative of History. When a simple flash-forward is operated, with no intended topic shift, reference is made to analogy and contrast between past and present, or to current ‘memory’ or awareness of the past or even just to current factual traces of the past. While certainly contributing to identity construction, these occurrences introduce the present as a tool for understanding the past, rather than vice-versa. The intent is basically explanatory and the focus is on the ‘past’ or on the historical event presented. Elements recalled by this flash-forward mostly acts as actual evidence, i.e. current traces of the past. Pragmatically these references also help construct the writer’s (and the reader’s) expertise, while showing continuity in history and adding reality to the narrative. Collocates found in the co-text of the adverb often include locatives: (ex. 8) A more common type of fortification was the stronghold, detached from the city, as may be seen today at Yagul, Oaxaca. (PAC, Aztec Warfare) (ex. 9) the territory that now forms modern Laos was divided among a bewildering range of minor rulers. (PAC, Indo-China in Turmoil) (my emphasis) Reference is also made to current memory or awareness, in ways that at the same time activate and construct shared knowledge, values and beliefs. The co-text is typically characterized by collocates identifying cognitive or discourse processes (known, seem, acknowledged, quoted, seen. found, forget) or Marina Bondi 26 implying them by characterizing events in evaluative terms (clear, famous, legendary). (ex 10) The First World War seemed to corroborate worries about white ‘racial solidarity’. It is a fact little remembered today, but for many people at the time, one of the horrific elements of the Great War was that it constituted racial fratricide. (PAC, Whiteness in crisis) (ex. 11) The panic began with an outbreak of dreams. Large numbers of people, for the most part children and young people, dreamed that they were taken to the witches’ sabbath at night while they lay asleep in bed. This epidemic of what psychologists today would term ‘stereotyped’ dreams spread from village to village; night after night the people affected dreamed that they were fetched to the Sabbaths. (PAC, Witch trial) (ex. 12) Despite their use of Cambodia (or Kampuchea as the country is now renamed) as a vital sanctuary area in the past, the Vietnamese withdrew their remaining forces behind their own borders (PAC, Indo-China in Turmoil) (ex. 13) Other events that now seem surprising followed Aberfan. (PAC, Echoes of Injustice) (my emphasis) The more evaluative occurrences are often not strictly speaking explanatory: they do not scaffold understanding, but rather invite the reader to accept what might nowadays seem difficult to accept. They are meant to facilitate understanding of the past rather than involve the reader in reflecting on the present. On the whole, explanatory flash-forward plays a very similar role in the two corpora examined, accounting for a good proportion of occurrences of today (42% in PAC and 43% in JAC) and a smaller proportion of occurrences of now (21% in PAC and 23 % in JAC). JAC shows a slight preference for references to current awareness, whereas we find a more varied picture in PAC, with a significant role for analogical interpretation (today), factual evidence and memory construction. 4.3 Conflating time axes and superimposing chronotopes: the past as present As already anticipated, now can also be used with no real reference to the present of discourse, intended as the current world of the writer and the reader. The use of proximal deictics in general can be oriented to drawing the reader into the world of the narrative, rather than relating the narrative to the ‘here and now’ of the reader. In the following example, for instance, the choice of a whole set of deictics asks the reader to move away from the time Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 27 perspective of discourse (250 years ago this month) to share the character’s perspective, and therefore adopt the time of the event reported as ‘present’: (ex. 14) Prospects seemed dreary for young Caroline Herschel, born in Hanover 250 years ago this month, when her father said that, since she lacked either beauty or wealth, she could forget marriage. Apparently all that remained for her was a life of dull drudgery as an unpaid housekeeper in Hanover. But escape came when she was twenty-two, thanks to her elder brother William, who had deserted from the Hanoverian army and set up home in England (then sharing the same royal family) and was now a musician in fashionable Bath. Happier here, though still housekeeping, Caroline began training as a singer, and she also found herself drawn to William’s new enthusiasm: amateur astronomy. (PAC, Birth of Caroline Herschel). (my emphasis) The text works by “translating” (or conflating) temporal reference axes and thus taking the reader to the past by shifting the reader’s perspective to make it coincide with that of the characters. This is typically marked by combining the proximal deictic with a (typically distal) simple past: was now, were now, now was,etc. (ex. 15) Petain’s elevation was confirmed when the National Assembly voted by a majority of 468 to 80, to give him full powers. The Third Republic, the constitutional regime under which France had been governed since 1875 was now dead, replaced by ‘l’etatfrancais’. (PAC, Vichy: Petain’s Hollow Crown) These also include a few cases that might be interpreted as vague forms of Free Indirect Thought, such as example 15, but there is really no clear indication of an attribution: (ex. 16) There was considerable relief in London, then, when in October the political body in France agreed to usher in a republic under the authority of a president elected for four years by universal adult manhood suffrage. The future of Anglo-French relations would now hinge on the identity of the new president. (PAC, Napoleon III, Lord Palmerston and the Entente Cordiale). (my emphasis) This combination of ‘present’ reference with ‘past’ narrative clearly ends up engaging the reader in the time reference of the story (the historical narrative) rather than in discourse on the present. The procedure, which is also typical of a lot of expository texts, characterizes both genres under examination, but in different measure, as it accounts for 48% of the occurrences of now in PAC, against 32% in JAC. It is therefore once more a feature that characterizes popular history. Marina Bondi 28 5 Now vs. today As we have seen, both now and today have significantly higher frequency in the corpus of popular articles. They also share many of the same functions. When we look at the overall picture of the functions, as represented in Figures 1 and 2, we notice distinctive features of the two adverbs. Figure 1 illustrates the data found analyzing all the occurrences of today (113 in PAC and 232 in JAC). The data were divided into four categories: a) textual timeshifts (see 3.2. above); b) explanatory “flash-forward” occurrences (see 3.3. above); c) occurrences reported in quotes from primary or secondary sources, and d) other uses (such as occurrences belonging to titles quoted or specific phraseological combinations). Figure 1 Today across genres The graph shows clearly that explanatory uses are dominant in the research corpus, followed by references to the present contained in sources, clearly much more relevant here than in the popular articles corpus (25% vs 6%).The corpus of popular articles, on the other hand, is characterized by a marked presence of textual time shifts to the present. Showing the current relevance of historical processes clearly becomes a distinctive element of the genre. In terms of the uses of today, then, popular writing seems to owe just as much to instructional discourse (with its explanatory uses) as to journalistic writing, with its need to anchor events to their current relevance. The two functions would also be the main functions of the adverb when considered across both corpora. If we turn to the use of now, as illustrated in Figure 2, we find the same categories, together with the function that we have called “conflating time axes” or “past as present”, engaging the reader in sharing the spatio-temporal 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100% PAC JAC Other Reported Explanatory FF Time Shift Bridging perspe eral, an 9pttw v was an Figure The pi in pop shifts t (16% v and co source The and th most f presen 6 A For co SPACE keywor the oth with on always tary ev g across Comm ctive of an ev nd significan vs 1200, 5pttw nalyzed. 2 Now acros cture that em pular writing to the presen vs 8%). Resear onfirms a hig s. e three main eir relative im frequent, follo t. A brief comp omparison, th E corpus (phy rds in physic her hand, now nly 7 occurre reported, an vidence, the ca unities: Time Fr vent narrated tly more freq w). A sample s genres merges shows (accounting nt are still m rch writing sh gher use of oc functions of mportance is owed by exp parison with t he same kind ysics and bio cs, with 14 an w was keywo ences. Keepin nd that the dis ategories for a rames and Read d. The adverb quent in PAC of 100 rando s that “the pa for 48% of much more fr hows the sam ccurrences in the adverb n very similar, planatory flas the SPACE c d of analysis ology). Both t nd 55 occurre ord (with 66 ng in mind th sciplines invo analysis were der’s Engageme b is much mo C than in JA om occurrenc ast as present the occurren requent than me proportion ncluded in pr now are comm , with “past a sh-forward an corpus s was briefly today and no ences respect occurrences) hat the voice olved are not e slightly adap ent ore frequent C (306 occur ces from each ” is vastly do nces), althoug in research n of explanato rimary or sec mon to both c as present” be nd time shift carried out ow were foun ively. In biol , but today w of scientists based on doc pted. 29 in genrrences, h corpus ominant gh time writing ory uses condary corpora eing the ft to the on the nd to be logy, on was not, s here is cumen- Marina Bondi 30 Uses of today were rather limited altogether. In biology, except for a reported occurrence, they were equally divided between explanatory uses, typically framing quantities (“by 2050 we will have 9 billion mouths to feed, 3 billion more than today”), and uses pointing to the present status of research (“very few scientists today believe that electric fields have much physiological relevance”). Similarly, physics attests the same figures for explanatory uses (“hydrogen clouds formed into structures that eventually became the stars and galaxies of today”) and references to the present, often balancing the present state of research (“preon models are not wildly popular today”) and the present state of nature as seen through the lens of research (“gravitons left over from this time might still be in a non-quantum state today”). Now is almost systematically used to announce the novelty of scientific discovery: (ex. 17) But now a team at Imperial College London led by Jim Barber and So Iwata has made what could be the decisive breakthrough. (SPACE, BIO) (ex. 18) Novikov has now shown that this second horizon changes everything. (SPACE, PHYS) (my emphasis) Explanatory references to the present are limited (now at the Perimeter Institute/ now known as Moore’s law), especially in physics (7/ 66, i.e. 11% in biology vs 12/ 55, i.e. 22% in physics). Use in reported discourse is even more limited (2/ 66, i.e. 3% in biology and 8/ 55, i.e. 15% physics). Conflating time frameworks is almost negligible, with 2 occurrences in biology only (3%). The brief overview suggests that, in the SPACE corpus, Myers’s distinction (1990) between a narrative of nature and a narrative of scientific discovery is a useful tool for analysis, showing that popularizations are all in favour of a narrative of research, accounting for the majority of occurrences in both corpora, especially when now is involved (67% of the occurrences in physics and 59% in biology). The corpora we are using do not allow direct comparison between popular articles in history and the hard sciences. The absence of the most typically narrative uses of now can be easily related to the inherently narrative structure of historical argument as against the empirical and demonstrative logic of biology and physics. The tendency to favour the narrative of research in the SPACE corpus, on the other hand, might depend both on disciplinary epistemology and on its ‘third-party’ nature (as here the voice is that of the journalist and not of the researcher). In all cases, however, now and today prove to be useful tools for drawing the reader’s attention to the relevance of research in the world of the reader. Bridging across Communities: Time Frames and Reader’s Engagement 31 7 Conclusions: Re-contextualizing in popular history The present study has focused on the resources of re-contextualizing in the narrative of popular history, and in particular on the role of time deictics now and today. These were found to play three main textual roles: marking shifts to the present in the time reference of the text, involving the reader in the narrative, providing explanatory scaffolding with reference to the present. Both adverbials were commonly found in explanatory illustrations that used reference to the present for purely clarifying purposes, without substantially changing the time axis of discourse, in forms of flash-forward. These explanatory references help readers interpret the past in terms of their present experience or awareness, whether this is actual, presumed or discursively constructed. The references are equally common in the two genres examined and can be equally related to the needs of exposition. Time shifts to the present, on the other hand, reveal variation across specific markers and across genres. They are more frequently marked by today and they show a tendency to occur more frequently in the popular writing corpus. Here references to the present also show a tendency to focus on the socio-historical present and raise issues that are often presented as key issues in current affairs, but in forms of generalized reference and taking positions that may be relatively uncontentious once the readership is identified. These temporal shifts can easily be shown to contribute to constructing shared values and context with readers. The same could be said of the rare references to current historiographical debate, which are also meant to create a shared background, even if present debates are used to reinterpret the past. In academic journals, on the other hand, these references are rather intended to actually involve the reader in debates that are currently engaging the academic community. On the whole, references to the present can be shown to contribute to the reader’s engagement in many ways. They can make the narrative closer to the reader’s experience and highlight the social significance of the data or conclusions produced, as well as the relevance to current debates/ research. They favour textual interaction by constructing writer/ reader identity and solidarity, activating knowledge, emphasizing and constructing shared values and beliefs, and bridging the knowledge gap. Apart from this, references to the present highlight the relevance of the past to the present (and vice-versa), representing elements of (dis)continuity between the two and ultimately presenting the discipline as a tool for understanding past and present. The adverb now was also seen to play a fundamental role in leading the reader to share the historical perspective of historical agents and processes, by conflating time frameworks and engaging the reader in the mental reconstruction of objects, places or situations. Time and place orientation aligns the reader’s perspective with that of historical characters, potentially determining the reader’s positioning and constructing empathy through shared knowl- Marina Bondi 32 edge/ beliefs/ values. Once again this form of the reader’s engagement is key to the development of the narrative and contributes greatly to textual interaction, by constructing the reader’s perspective and position, establishing both the elements of the complicating action (setting, characters, events), and the ‘point’ of the story, introducing a problem to be discussed and anticipating stages in the narrative and argument. Conflating time axes represents continuity between past and present by taking the reader into the time of the story. The study has also shown that temporal references can become resources by which the author negotiates his/ her position with the reader according to genre-specific orientations. As suggested elsewhere with reference to the use of spatial deictics and description (Bondi 2012), historians tend to present themselves as Recounters (or Reporters) in Popular writing, whereas they highlight their identity as Arguers in research. They focus on present-day relevance in popularizations and on the line of argument in journal articles, but offer clear orientation to the narrative in both. Temporal deixis becomes instrumental in the re-contextualization process at play and historians prove to be aware of the needs of the reader to relate historical information to their own experience and identity. More generally, from the point of view of the chronotopes involved in historical writing, the different types of references to the present create different intersections of the two main chronotopes: one firmly rooted in the historical event (the past) and the other in the reader’s present. In both corpora, for different reasons, the readers experience the dialogue between past and present mentioned by Carr (1986) in different ways: a) using the past chronotope as a lens for reading the present (narrative interpretation of the present); b) using the present chronotope as a tool for reading the past (in references to historiographical debate and interpretations, or in explanatory references); c) fully overlapping the two chronotopes (“conflating time axes”) in forms that involve the readers in the historical narrative, by aligning their spatio-temporal perspective with that of historical characters. d) fully overlapping the two chronotopes (“conflating time axes”) in forms that involve the readers in the historical narrative, by aligning their spatio-temporal perspective with that of historical characters. 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The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation Giuliana Garzone (University of Milano, Italy) 1 Introduction: from blogs to blawgs In an article published in The Wall Street Journal in 2006 Daniel Henninger observed that “it looks … as if the world of blogs may be filling up with people who for the previous 200 millennia of human existence kept their weird thoughts more or less to themselves. Now, they don’t have to. They’ve got the Web. Now they can share.” The weblog web genre was born in the 1990s 1 as a form of expression “located at the intersection of the private and public realms” (Miller/ Shepherd 2004) aimed at self-disclosure and, more indirectly, community building. Capable of reaching a virtually planetary audience, blogs have blossomed into immense popularity with astonishing rapidity: at present about 44.5 million new posts and 56.7 million new comments are produced each month (http: / / en.wordpress.com/ stats/ accessed 19.04.2014). They are being hailed as fundamentally different from previously existing offline and online genres, and as “possessing a socially transformative, democratizing potential”, occupying a new position in the internet genre ecology (Herring/ Scheidt et al. 2005: 142-143). For the same reasons, blogs are also welcomed as potentially powerful vehicles for knowledge dissemination (Myers 2009) and for the construction and negotiation of information and ideas (Jacobs/ Rushkoff 2006: 240) A blog is “a website containing an archive of regularly updated online postings” (Grieve et al. 2010: 303), usually described as characterised by three main properties: reverse chronology of entries, frequent updating, and a combination of links and personal commentary (cf. e.g. Miller/ Shepherd 2004; Herring/ Kouper et al. 2005; Garzone 2012). Blogs also have recurrent peripheral features that make them promptly recognisable ( Riboni 2010: 91ff.): posts include a date, a time stamp, and a permalink, 2 and are usually followed by a repertoire of links to other blogs (Marlow 2004; cf. also Blood 2002), or to websites, mainstream media or social networks, e.g. Facebook or Twitter 1 The term ‘weblog’ was first used by Jørn Barger on 17 December 1997 (Barger 2007), while its short form, ‘blog’, was coined in April/ May 1999 by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com (cf. Walker 2003). 2 A permalink, or permanent link, is a URL that points to a blog post and remains unchanged, even when it passes from the front page to the archives. Giuliana Garzone 38 (Herring/ Kouper et al. 2005; Myers 2009: 28-37). In most cases they also feature a photograph of the writer or an icon standing for it, a specification of his/ her name or nickname and, sometimes, even a short bionote. Another element generally considered to be characteristic of blogs is the presence of threads of comments responding to the posts or to other comments, as in most cases even those blogs where there appear no comments offer the possibility of inserting them, at least as a potential option for readers. So the standard format of a blog is usually considered to be ‘posts plus peripheral features plus comments’, thus inherently incorporating a component of interpersonal interaction. 3 In time blogs have partly diversified from their original diaristic character, being used for communicating for a variety of purposes, hybridizing with traditional and online genres typical of the different domains involved. For instance ‘news and blogging’ websites (e.g. The Huffington Post) can be seen as the result of hybridization between blogs and news discourse (Bruce 2010; Garzone 2012), especially comment articles and editorials (van Dijk 1992; Vestergaard 2000; Westin 2002), and the science blog as hybridized with the conference paper (Mauranen 2013). Thus blogs can be divided into personal blogs and thematic blogs, as proposed by Krishnamurthy (2002), and by Grieve et al. (2010) whose factor analysis of functional linguistic variation in blogs has identified thematic and personal blogs as the major blog text-types, followed by a marginal and rare blog type, the expert blog. Although personal blogs are still more popular in terms of sheer number, thematic blogs have increased their relative importance, with many of them developing from single-author into multi-author blogs (MABs) where posts are produced by many different writers and professionally edited, being in many cases hosted on the websites of institutions or organisations, such as companies, public departments, research bodies, newspapers or magazines, etc. This progressive and increasing diversification of various kinds of blogs has led some scholars to pose the problem of whether this evolution undermines the shared rhetorical action that originally made it possible to classify all blogs as belonging to a single genre (Miller/ Shepherd 2009), thus suggesting that more than a genre blogs are simply a medium. Another objection by Mauranen (2013) is based on the absence of a pre-existing discourse community to which blogs are addressed, as in web-mediated communication “it is the context that seems to create genres, and communities emerge around 3 It is to be noted that some researchers have chosen to collect only posts: for instance, in their multi-dimensional factor analysis Grieve et al. (2010) included only posts and excluded all other kinds of text found on the blog websites. Here I deem itnecessary to include also comments, considering them to be an integral part of the genre. The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 39 them” (Mauranen 2013: 30), a fact that makes it impossible to meet one of the criteria traditionally used in genre analysis for the purpose of genre identification, i.e. recognition and understanding of the communicative purpose of the relevant discursive events by the members of the professional or academic community in which it occurs (Bhatia 1993; cf. also Swales 1990). The approach adopted in this chapter prefers to consider the blog as a macro-genre (Garzone 2012), as proposed by Bhatia (2004) for letters, 4 comprising a whole range of ‘hyphenated’ (i.e. bior poly-rhematic) genres (public affairs blog, corporate blog, political blog, etc.), each with its own peculiarities but also sharing some distinctive features and part of its communicative purpose with all other blogs. 1.1 Aim, method and scope Within the foregoing general picture this study focuses on law blogs, often referred to as “blawgs”, and is part of a wider research project on this type of thematic blogs, peculiar to the legal field, used by the academic and professional community to bring legal issues to the attention of the public, exchange professional views, comment on legal cases, maintain scholarly conversations, and take advantage of a form of instant academic publication open to debate (Berman 2006, 2007; Kerr 2006; Solum 2006; Volokh 2006). In this work, a corpus of legal blogs will be explored with a view to assessing the degree of variation across the four blawgs it comprises, correlating results with various contextual and inherent factors. The ultimate purpose is that of verifying whether variation inside the sub-genre is so substantial as to compromise its generic integrity and its membership of the blog genre, in a context where it has been put into question (as illustrated above; Miller/ Shepherd 2009; Mauranen 2013). For this purpose the recurrence of selfmentions in the different blogs included in the corpus will be examined as evidence of the individualistic/ existential character of the blog that has been identified as one of its most salient distinctive traits. Other aspects considered will be the overall discursive organization, content orientation, and inner constitution. This will make it possible to shed light on issues concerning the conceptualization and evolution of the blog genre and its sub-genres and provide the opportunity to reflect on the role of blogs and bloggers in the construction and dissemination of [legal] knowledge. The study is set in a discourse-analytical framework, and draws on research on metadiscourse (Crismore 1989; Hyland 2005), relying in particular on Hyland’s (2001) work on self-mention in academic genres, and will also make use of corpus linguistic tools (Wordsmith Tools 5.0: cf. Scott 2011). 4 Bhatia (2004: 34) describes the ‘letter’ as a macro-genre, while he considers the ‘business letter’ as a ‘genre colony’. It is to be noted that among scholars there is hardly any agreement as to how to refer to groupings of a number of (sub)genres that serve - at least partially, if not exclusively - the same purpose. Giuliana Garzone 40 Being focused on an online sub-genre it also takes account of the literature on the adaptation of traditional analytical tools for the analysis of Web-mediated communication (Garzone 2002, 2007, 2012; Askehave/ Ellerup Nielsen 2005; Giltrow/ Stein 2009; Santini/ Meheler/ Sharoff 2010), but makes more specific reference to studies of blogs as a genre (e.g. Blood 2002; Krishnamurthy 2002; Herring/ Kouper et al. 2005; Herring & Paolillo 2006; Myers 2009; Grieve et al. 2010), and in particular to studies of legal blogs, mainly by law scholars and law practitioners (e.g. Caron 2006; Kerr 2006), while linguistic and discourse analytical studies of legal blogs have only just started (Garzone 2014). The corpus this work is based on, already used for a previous study within the framework of the “blawgs” project (Garzone 2014), was collected between 14 September and 3 October 2012. It comprises texts from four blawgs, two from the US and two from the UK: the Wall Street Journal Law Blog (from now on referred to as ‘Wall Street Journal’), the Above the Law Blog (‘Above the Law’), The Magistrates’ Blog (‘Magistrates’) and the UK Human Rights Blog (‘Human Rights’). The Above the Law blog (<abovethelaw.com>), 5 addressed to law professionals as well as to the general public, is run by members of law firms in the US. On search engines defines itself “A legal blog - news, commentary and gossip about the legal industry”. It is a site of exchange of views among lawyers, also occasionally publishing gossip and rumours about law schools and the profession. The UK Human Rights Blog (<http: / / ukhumanrights blog.com/ >) is written by a group of barristers, and discusses courts’ decisions on human rights and topical cases, in general also featuring a link to the original judgment. The Magistrates’ Blog(<http: / / magistratesblog.blogspot.it>), a British website, is maintained by Justices of the Peace and posts experts’ personal reflections and thoughts on legal cases and the magistrate’s profession. The fourth source, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog (<http: / / blogs.wsj. com/ law/ >), differs from the others for the fact of being hosted on the website of a major US financial newspaper, and is presented on the home page as “an online publication that covers hot cases, emerging trends and big personalities in law […]”. It was included in the corpus to represent the journalism blogs that have proliferated in all thematic areas. To make comparison across blogs possible, the corpus is divided into eight sub-corpora, one for each blog with posts and comments kept separate on account of their discursive differences, posts being pre-planned (sometimes quite long and complex) textual realizations that point to a problem, or express opinions or comment on facts, while comments are contingent, often spontaneous, responses to posts or to other comments, thus functioning as the second part of an adjacency pair, the first element of which is the post, or a previous comment. 5 Unless stated otherwise, all websites were last accessed in February 2014. The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 41 The details of the whole corpus are given in Table 1: Main corpus Posts Comments Tokens 153,548 79,666 73,882 Types 12,971 8,764 8,804 STTR 43,37 44,44 44,55 Table 1 Details of blawg corpus and sub-corpora. Table 2 shows data relative to each single blog analytically: Above the Law (UK) Human Rights Magistrates’ Wall Street Journal Tokens 8,445 7,545 32,137 25,421 Types 6,546 5,977 4,624 4,463 STTTR 42,79 42,84 43,08 45,86 Table 2 Details of sub-corpora. As can be seen from Table 2, the characteristics of the four sub-corpora are relatively uniform in terms of Standardized Type/ Token ratio, with a slight variation for ‘Wall Street Journal’, which is the only blawg that is not written exclusively by scholars and practitioners of the law, but also by (specialised) journalists. The study is organised as follows. After the Introduction and the specification of the aim, method and scope (see §1 and §1.1. above), in §2.1 variation in recourse to self-mention in the four blogs will be looked at and discussed. In §2.2. further elements of variation across blawgs will be gathered through the analysis of their internal constitution. A further step (§2.3) will be the analysis of the most frequent lexical items, focusing on the topics dealt with in each of the four blawgs, with a view to identifying elements of commonality and differentiation. In §2.4 this detailed investigation will be followed by the analysis of some samples of texts from the blawgs, conducted in light of the findings. General conclusions will follow (§3). 2 The Study 2.1 Self-mention In consideration of the diaristic, self-expressive origin of blogs self-mentions in texts can be considered to be evidence of the presence of an individualistic/ existential component in discourse, and therefore as indicators of generic integrity. Their variation can provide important evidence of a gradual evolution from the personal use of blogs to a thematic, professional, academic or Giuliana Garzone 42 knowledge disseminating function. Second-person pronouns are also taken into account as ‘engagement markers’ (Hyland 2005) signalling strong writer involvement when a potential interlocutor is addressed. In a previous corpus-based study (Garzone 2014) seeking to identify the peculiarities of blawgs within the more general picture of legal communication, the corpus was searched for first-person singular and plural pronominal references and possessives as well as for non-pronominal author selfreferences, which however were found to be virtually absent in all the corpora investigated. For purposes of triangulation, they were compared with data from two comparable corpora of research papers in the legal field and arbitration awards. 6 The Table below shows findings: Blawg Posts % Blawg Comments % All Blawgs % Research papers % Arbitration awards % I 0.39 1.10 0.69 7 0.04 0.02 Me 0.06 0.18 0.11 0.01 0.04 My 0.11 0.25 0.16 0.03 0.01 Total 1 st per. sing. 0.56 2.53 0.96 0.07 0.06 We 0.25 0.23 0.24 0.07 0.07 Us 0.06 0.04 0.05 0.03 0.01 Our 0.11 0.07 0.09 0.02 0.02 Total 1 st per. pl. 0.42 0.34 0.38 0.12 0.10 You 0.37 0.75 0.56 0.01 0.01 Your 0.07 0.22 0.13 0.01 0.01 Total 2 nd per. 0.43 0.97 0.70 0.01 0.01 Table 3 Self-mention and second person reference in blawgs vs research papers and arbitration awards (modified from Garzone 2014). The frequency of first and second person reference both in the overall corpus and in the Posts and Comments sub-corpora is by far higher than that recorded in research papers and in arbitration awards, with especially high readings 6 Research papers were extracted from the law section of the CADIS corpus (courtesy of Prof. M. Gotti, University of Bergamo), and arbitration awards from Kluwer Bank (1998-2002). For details of the corpora cf. Garzone (2014: 174-176). 7 Please note that the datum relative to the whole corpus is not necessarily the mathematical average between the figure relative to Posts and that relative to Comments, as the size of the two sub-corpora is uneven. The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 43 for Comments, which obviously feature a more prominent personal and interpersonal component. These findings show that blawgs have not lost the personal individualistic character that is distinctive of the weblog genre, and this is more evident in Comments than in Posts. The personal orientation of the sub-genre is also confirmed by an analysis of the verb forms with which first-person singular pronouns collocate, which suggests that they are not used only metadiscursively, but also to express the blogger’s views or existential experience (Garzone 2014: 178). Since this work focuses on variation across blogs, the analysis will now consider the occurrence of self-mentions and, more in general, the overall use of first and second person reference in each single blawg in order to verify whether the average data may not conceal any deviant case. Table 4 shows the frequency of first and second pronouns in the four subcorpora analytically. Data regarding the control corpora have also been added for convenience: AL % HR % MAG % WSJ % Research papers % Arbitration awards % I 0.92 0.42 1.04 0.31 0.04 0.02 Me 0.16 0.06 0.13 0.06 <0.01 0.04 My 0.23 0.10 0.23 0.07 0.03 <0.01 Total 1 st pers. sing. 1.41 0.58 1.40 0.44 0.07 0.06 We 0.27 0.16 0.39 0.20 0.07 0.07 Us 0.09 0.03 0.07 0.07 0.03 0.01 Our 0.07 0.09 0.12 0.09 0.02 0.02 Total 1 st pers. pl. 0.45 0.26 0.58 0.36 0.12 0.10 You 0.95 0.25 0.54 0.20 <0.01 0.01 Your 0.21 0.06 0.21 0.04 <0.01 <0.01 Total 2 nd pers. 1.16 0.31 0.75 0.24 <0.01 0.01 Table 4 Self-reference and second-person reference in blog sub-corpora and in control corpora. These findings indicate that the blogs examined tend to converge into two groups, ‘Above the Law’ and ‘Magistrates’, on the one hand, and ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Wall Street Journal’ on other, with the former pair showing a frequency of 1st person singular pronouns that is three times as high as in the other two files, a difference which - albeit less substantially - regards also first person Giuliana Garzone 44 plural pronouns. This suggests that in ‘Above the Law’ and ‘Magistrates’ the personal component originally typical of blogs is more substantially preserved, while the fact that this differentiation is accompanied by a parallel variation in the frequency of second person pronouns indicates also a greater degree of interpersonal interactivity. However, it is to be noted that also readings obtained for ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Wall Street Journal’, although much lower, are by far higher than those found in the control corpora, thus suggesting that albeit less substantial, the individualistic component typical of blogs is preserved also in them. While these data regard blawgs considering their post and comment components together, Table 5 shows the same data for posts and comments analytically; the first figure refers to posts and the second one, after the backslash, refers to comments: AL % HR % MAG % WSJ % I 0.74/ 1.25 0.12/ 0.85 0.70/ 1.10 0.19/ 0.98 Me 0.11/ 0.24 <0.1/ 0.14 0.19/ 0.12 0.02/ 0.27 My 0.21/ 0.29 0.07/ 0.13 0.21/ 0.24 0.03/ 0.29 Total 1 st pers. sing. 1.06/ 1.78 0.19/ 1.12 1.10/ 1.46 0.24/ 1.54 We 0.39/ 0.21 0.11/ 0.21 0.87/ 0.31 0.21/ 0.11 Us 0.09/ 0.06 0.08/ 0.09 0.19/ 0.06 0.06/ 0.11 Our 0.13/ 0.02 0.08/ 0.09 0.29/ 0.10 0.10/ 0.05 Total 1 st pers. pl. 0.61/ 0.29 0.27/ 0.39 1.35/ 0.47 0.37/ 0.27 You 0.92/ 1.14 0.08/ 0.47 0.33/ 0.58 0.18/ 0.29 Your 0.17/ 0.29 0.02/ 0.12 0.10/ 0.22 0.02/ 0.11 Total 2 nd pers. 1.09/ 1.43 0.10/ 0.59 0.43/ 0.80 0.2/ 0.40 Table 5 Self-reference and second-person reference in posts and comments in individual blawgs. Table 5 shows that the frequency of first person pronominal reference tends to be higher in comments, with a more substantial difference in the case of ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Wall Street Journal’; with comments having about six times as many first person singular pronouns/ possessives as the posts. In ‘Above the Law’ and ‘Magistrates’ the discrepancy between posts and comments is smaller, with the frequency of first-person singular reference in comments being about 40% higher than in posts. The difference between posts and comments is much more limited in the case of second person pronouns, with ‘Above the Law’ being by far the most interactive of the blawgs, followed by ‘Magistrates’, while the other two show much lower readings. Quite meaningfully, in the case of first person plural pronouns data about posts are not higher than those about comments, which suggests that all The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 45 commenters prefer to speak as single individuals rather than as representatives of a category or a group. Overall findings confirm the general trends that already emerged in the previous Tables. 2.2 Internal constitution The blogs under discussion also differ greatly in terms of internal constitution as determined by the relative incidence of readers’ responses. If one considers the average number of comments elicited by each post, ‘Magistrates’ emerges as the most dialogic with 21 comments per post, followed by ‘Above the Law’ with 17.5, while ‘Human Rights’ has not even half of this (7.2) and ‘Wall Street Journal’ only 1.7. These data are shown graphically in Graph 1: Graph 1 Average number of comments per posts. These findings again confirm the presence of trends similar to those identified in the study of pronominal reference, with two of the blawgs, ‘Magistrates’ and ‘Above the Law’, more in line with the personal and interpersonal tradition of the blog, and ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Wall Street Journal’ more informative and impersonal. These results change only partially if instead of evaluating comments in numerical terms one compares the average number of words found respectively in posts and comments within each single blog, as shown in Table 6: Posts Comments AL 21,926 = 45.26% 26,519 = 54.74% HR 26,519 = 58.17% 19,891 = 41.83% MAG 4,844 = 15.08% 27,293 = 84.92% WSJ 21,642 = 85.14% 3,779 = 14.86% Table 6 Posts and comments in sub-corpora in absolute and in percentage terms. 0 5 10 15 20 25 AL HR M AG WSJ Giuliana Garzone 46 This is represented graphically in Graph 2: Graph 2 Posts vs comments: number of words. Altogether these data on posts and comments suggest important differences among blogs. ‘Magistrates’ is confirmed to be the most “open” of the four blawgs attracting more comments presumably on account of its tendency to deal with existential and ethical themes as well as discussing topical issues, albeit in the perspective of the JP’s profession. It is followed by ‘Above the Law’, which however in this case is much less distant from ‘Human Rights’ than with respect to other parameters (self-mention, second-person reference). Wall Street Journal is an extreme case, with a very limited presence of comments, in terms both of sheer number of responses and of overall number of words contained in comments. In this respect, it is more similar to online newspapers, where most articles attract only few comments (although there may be exceptions). 2.3 Recurrent lexicon Further useful elements to ascertain variation across the blawgs under investigation can be gathered by comparing the frequency lists of the four subcorpora. The results are presented in Table 7, which shows the ten most frequent lexical items extracted from the frequency list of each of the blogs, with domain-specific words highlighted in bold typeface. AL % HR % MAG % WSJ % Law 0.56 Court 0.50 Court 0.25 court 0.70 firms 0.22 Rights 0.44 People 0.17 law 0.53 partner 0.20 Law 0.40 Blog 0.16 judge 0.37 work 0.18 Reply 0.29 Public 0.15 federal 0.28 lawyers 0.17 Human 0.27 Time 0.15 firm 0.24 partners 0.17 Case 0.24 Get 0.13 justice 0.23 0 5.000 10.000 15.000 20.000 25.000 30.000 35.000 40.000 45.000 50.000 AL HR M AG WSJ Comments Posts The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 47 AL % HR % MAG % WSJ % Time 0.16 Article 0.19 magistrates 0.13 case 0.21 Year 0.16 People 0.18 Years 0.12 legal 0.20 school 0.14 Public 0.17 Say 0.12 new 0.19 know Judge 0.16 Law 0.10 lawyers 0.17 Table 7 List of most frequent lexical items. Lexicallywise, the least specialised blawg is ‘Magistrates’, with only two highly frequent words pertaining to the legal domain (court, magistrates). At the other end of the spectrum there is ‘Wall Street Journal’ in which the specific vocabulary is predominant and takes up nine of the top ten positions. ‘Above the Law’ and ‘Human Rights’ have an intermediate position, with ‘Above the Law’ preferably focusing on professional issues, as indicated by the presence of the words firms, partner/ s and work, and with ‘Human Rights’ that has human and rights ranking second and fifth respectively. A clearer idea of the topics dealt with in each blawg can be obtained from the analysis of a representative sample of headlines from each blawg: 8 Above the Law Blog “What Ya Gonna Do, When Gawker Posts A Sex Tape Of You? ” “Which Big law Firms Are Opening Their Wallets to Donate to Obama and Romney? ” “Reading Tea Leaves: Defense Bar Freaking Out About the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act” “In Defense of the Alleged Berkeley Bird Murderers” “Vacation Memo: Paternity Leave” (announcing one of the bloggers’ paternity leave) UK Human Rights Blog “The revolving door of EU criminal justice - Jodie Blackstock” “When the UN breach human rights… who wins? ” [NADA v. SWITZERLAND - 10593/ 08 - HEJUD [2012] ECHR 1691] “Goodbye Abu Hamza (really this time)” [Abu Hamza and others -v- Home Secretary] 8 N.B.: headlines are followed by a gloss when the title is not referential. Giuliana Garzone 48 “Government should have consulted Child Poverty Commission on welfare strategy” [Child Poverty Action Group, R (on the application of) v Secretary of State for Work and Pensions [2012] EWHC 2579 (Admin) (17 July 2012)] The Magistrates’ Blog “Enfant? Terrible! ” (About legal issues in the case of a child who ran away with her teacher) “Who Said Original Thinking Was No More? ” (about community sentences) “In the Spotlight” (about the case of a man [Oldfield] who interrupted the race between Oxford and Cambridge by swimming into the path of the crews to demonstrate against government cuts) “All In a Day’s Work” (about the list of cases dealt with by the blogger in the last few months) Wall Street Journal Law Blog “How the Sleepy FCPA [Foreign Corrupt Practices Act] Became a Hulk and Why It’s Staying that Way” “The AM Roundup: JP Morgan Sued over Mortgage Bonds, More” “Appeals Court Upholds ‘Short-Swing’ Ruling Against Bulldog” “Daily Writing Sample: The Life Experience of a Judge” (about a death row inmate’s request to remove a judge from his case) “Pa. Judge Suggests Dropping Photo Requirement for Provisional Ballots” The analysis of this representative sample of post headlines shows that, although in general terms the focus of these blogs is on legal issues, they deal with them with different degrees of specificity and from different perspectives, also sometimes touching upon other topical and, above all, personal issues. Overall the main themes covered can be summarised as follows: a) presentation and discussion of legal issues and topical cases, including breaking legal news and reactions to significant legal developments b) discussion of problems and issues (even gossip) relevant to one of the legal professions (or law schools) c) personal themes and every day issues. The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 49 However, these themes do not appear in all the blogs and their coverage is uneven. Table 8 provides a representation of their distribution across blogs: AL HR MAG WSJ Presentation & discussion of cases X X X X Discussion of the professional community’s problems X X Personal themes / everyday issues X X Table 8 Distribution of themes across blawgs. From Table 8 it emerges that also in this case ‘Above the Law’ and ‘Magistrates’ on the one hand, and ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Wall Street Journal’ on the other hand, show similar interests. While ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Wall Street Journal’ focus exclusively on legally-related topics, ‘Above the Law’ and ‘Magistrates’ deal with personal and existential problems, mostly - but not necessarily - connected with the relevant legal professions, in addition to presenting and discussing legal cases or new legislation. ‘Magistrates’ is remarkable for choosing fancy headlines, hardly referential, thus presenting the posts in a less specialised light, while ‘Above the Law’ is unique for the fact that, when it deals with court cases, it features the exact legal reference and a link to the relevant judgment. 2.4 Analysis of sample blawg texts A brief examination of examples from each of the blogs considered will help put the findings illustrated so far into focus. The Magistrates’ Blog The first blawg to be examined is the Magistrates’ Blog which is written by a team of justices of the peace that call themselves “Bystander Team”, who however try not to emphasise their professional status by defining themselves on the homepage “a team, who may or may not be JPs, but all of whom are interested in the Magistrates’ Courts”. The vagueness of this definition and the specification that writers “may or may not be JPs” are due to the impact of a “guidance” document issued in August 2012 by the Senior Presiding Judge for England and Wales and the Senior President of Tribunals, 9 which mandates that “judicial office holders who blog must not identify themselves as members of the judiciary” and “must also avoid expressing opinions which… could damage public confidence in their own impartiality or in the judiciary in general”. The document, which obviously refers to The Magistrates’ Blog, 9 “Blogging by Judicial Office Holders”, <http: / / www.judiciary.gov.uk/ Resources/ JCO/ Documents/ Guidance/ blogging-guidance-august-2012.pdf>. Giuliana Garzone 50 threatens disciplinary action against holders that do not do so. The publication of the document enticed a lively public debate. 10 It is in all likelihood as a response to this accusing document that on the homepage of the blog there is the specification that “JPs swear to enforce the law of the land, whether or not they approve of it”, making it clear that individual opinions are not to interfere with law enforcement. So although various posts are written in the first person, they are never signed by an individual, but rather by the team and of course no pictures nor icons are featured to represent writers, as would be customary in blogs. As befits a blog maintained by JPs, ‘Magistrates’ discusses legal cases, often in terms that are not specifically technical but rather of general interest. An example is a post titled “Enfant? Terrible! ”, published on Friday, 28 September 2012: We have nothing to say about today’s news that a teacher and one of his pupils who allegedly ran away to France together have been apprehended. The law will take its course as far as the man is concerned, and the girl will presumably be returned to her family as she has committed no offence. Just one thing though: if this teenager had appeared in our court this week as a victim or as a witness the chairman would have made an order under the Children and Young Persons’ Act prohibiting publication of anything that might serve to identify her. Instead, her photographs are everywhere across the press and the internet. However matters turn out, this young woman, whom the law sees as a victim, will need to rebuild her life away from the glare of the media. We wish her well. [...] The text is highly argumentative, with the first two sentences functioning as the conceded propositions in a concessive structure, a fact of which readers are made aware only by a “though” in the third sentence (Just one thing though), because the point being made is set out in the ensuing “consequence” proposition: on account of the teacher-and-pupil’s escape abroad the provisions of the Children and Young Persons’ Act protecting the child’s privacy have been completely disregarded. But the focus of the discussion of the case shifts from legal and public to personal, as the writer adds his second thoughts quoting the song “She’s leaving home” by the Beatles, telling the story of a teenager running away from home: Later........... It may not have been entirely by chance that one of us heard this haunting Beatles track on the car radio this morning: - 10 On this controversy cf. “In praise of … the Magistrates’ Blog. Responsible reportage from the bench can only enhance understanding”, The Guardian, Thursday 6 September 2012. The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 51 Wednesday morning at five o’clock As the day begins Silently closing her bedroom door Leaving the note that she hoped would say more [...] This post attracted 46 comments, either in direct response to it or replying to one of the comments, in some cases focusing on the human aspect of the story, rather than on the legal one: oug&#39; s Dad 28 September 2012 20: 51 It is a pathetic and morally difficult set of circumstances. Put to one side the chance of a relationship succeeding long-term where 15 years difference between the couple exists (especially when one is a teenager) and you still have the issue of one day either side of the age of sixteen making all the legal difference. [...] John Cowan 28 September 2012 22: 35 My relationship has a 15-year age difference, and it has lasted for 33 years and still going strong, thankyouverymuch. Admittedly I was 21, not 15 or 16, when it began. ex imperator 29 September 2012 09: 22 I assume your partner at the outset was therefore 36, not 6 years old? ? It is interesting to see that here in response to the first comment, general in approach and linguistically rather impersonal, a new thread is started with two contributions that are very personal both in form and in content. In other cases what is being critically discussed is a new legal provision, e.g. the Criminal Justice Act 2003 (Surcharge) Order 2012 which changes the amount of victim surcharge paid by a Defendant upon conviction (post: “Here’s Another Bright Idea”, 23 September 2012)or the passing of a statutethat makes squatting an offence in the criminal as well as in the civil jurisdiction (“Squat Thrust”, 1 September 2012) and in most cases what is considered is not only the questions at issue, but also their impact on Magistrates’ work and decisions. Of particular interest are some posts that take a more existential approach and comment on the JP’s job, as in the following example: Monday, 10 September 2012 All In a Day’s Work I came across an old court list from last Spring while tidying my briefcase (writes a team member) and thought that the cases might cast an interesting light on a day’s work that is not necessarily typical, but that most magistrates would recognise. Male, 34, Produce Cannabis, plus breach Conditional Discharge Male, 22, Theft of metal (to be sentenced after guilty plea) […] Giuliana Garzone 52 In this blawg, each post attracts several comments of variable length, generally quite short but in some cases over 500 words long. The language is never too technical, but at the same time it refrains from colloquialisms, maintaining a semi-formal register suitable for the topics dealt with, and also probably influenced by the fact that, in spite of being personal expressions, the JPs’ contributions are set in a well-defined institutional order, as brought strongly to the bloggers’ attention by the 2012 “guidance” document referred to above. Above the Law Blog In this respect, the other professionally oriented blog, Above the Law, a blog maintained by members of law firms and addressed to professionals as well as to the general public, is very different in that it often makes use of very informal language, occasionally also talking about personal topics in the first person. 28 Sep 2012 at 4: 10 PM Reading Tea Leaves: Defense Bar Freaking Out About the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act By JOE PATRICE Nothing pisses off a lawyer more than uncertainty. Uncertainty gives rise to the risk of undermining the facade of perfect knowledge that attorneys prefer to convey to their clients. Given this character trait, it’s no surprise that the collective white-collar and corporate counsel community is freaking the hell out about every scrap of information it can glean from the Justice Department about its new Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) enforcement policy. [discussion of FCPA follows for another 692 words] The problem discussed in this post is momentous (if the Act is applied too strictly, any gift to foreign officials may be prosecutable), but the language used is extremely colloquial (“pisses off”, “freaking the hell out”, “scrap”). No wonder then that also comments maintain the same register, with an even more colloquial note, occasionally bordering on vulgarity, as can be seen in the following examples (and especially the third one): Anon Former WLRK Blogger - 8 hours ago Joe, you said this was going to be about how if Imelda Marcos were still in power offering her a pair of peep toe shoes as a customary gift might have run afoul of the current DOJ interpretation of the FCPA, I think we need to talk about your ongoing employment by this blog.[…] Joe Pesci - 6 hours ago Whew, I’m glad that this only applies to foreign transactions! Lucchese Compliance Counsel - 5 hours ago The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 53 Technically Indian casinos are foreign sovereign states Joe, so maybe next time you’re shaking down chief who-the-fuck-gives-a-shit-thespaghetti-here-tastes-like-shit, you should be mindful not to give him any gifts that would be considered more than customary and of merely token value. […] The degree of personal involvement becomes evident when one of the regular contributors of the blog announces his paternity, also posting a photograph of the newborn baby, a post that elicits a very lively response from readers with 68 comments: 01 Oct 2012 at 12: 15 PM Vacation Memo: Paternity Leave By ELIE MYSTAL Hello. How are you guys? Working hard? Getting ready for the season of bonuses and profit distributions? Realizing that 3L year is just as useless as I’ve always said it was? I hope all is well. You might have noticed that I was away last week. That’s because at 10: 59 p.m. on September 24th, my wife gave birth to a healthy baby boy. Here’s my son, Claudius (picture of baby). All posts are signed, but there are no pictures nor icons of the writers, and only occasionally bionotes at the end. The impression is that this blawg evidently exhibits so many of the distinctive discursive features of the genre that some of the peripheral features can be omitted without compromising its recognisability as a member of the blog genre. UK Human Rights Blog The UK Human Rights blog is maintained by a group of militant barristers of “1 Crown Office Row barristers’ chambers”, with three main editors, Adam Wagner, Rosalind English and Angus McCullough QC, for whom no picture nor icon is shown. Occasionally, the blog also hosts posts by external contributors, who are introduced by means of a short bio at the end of the post. Much less personal than the two blawgs analysed so far, it is also illustrated, featuring a picture for every post, and is certainly the most specifically legally oriented of the four, also offering links to case law and a “UK Human Rights Blog Case Table” which “incorporates many (but not all) of the reported human rights cases in the UK, as well as a short description of the case and at link to where it has been written about.” Furthermore, as anticipated above, each post referring to a court case starts with a specific legal indication (e.g. Meads v. Meads, 2012 ABQB 571 (Canadian)) and a “read judgment” link. In ‘Human Rights’ the most frequent type of post provides full details about a case in nearly journalistic style, also taking a clear - often militant - stance in defence of human rights: Giuliana Garzone 54 Sex abuse allegations against parent should be disclosed in contact proceedings September 28, 2012 by Matthew Flinn Re J (A Child: Disclosure) [2012] EWCA Civ 1204 - read judgment The Court of Appeal has ordered the disclosure of serious allegations made against a parent by an anonymous third party in contact proceedings. In doing so, it has demonstrated the correct approach to balancing the many different human rights considerations involved. Every day, family courts across the UK are required to determine the difficult question of how much contact there should be between a child and his or her parents. It is the norm for these cases to be factually complicated and emotionally draining. However, this case was exceptional. It was an appeal relating contact proceedings in respect of a ten year old girl (A). […] This post opens with an announcement of an event (“The Court of Appeal has ordered…”), similar to a lead in a newspaper article, which is followed by a highly evaluative statement (“In doing so, it has demonstrated the correct approach to balancing the many different human rights considerations involved.”) which puts forth the writer’s stance clearly, in keeping with the ideological, sometimes even militant, character of the blog. In this case, and in others where court cases are reported on, after the initial discussion of the merits and implications of the judgment, a detailed and ample summary of the case and of the decision follows formulated in qualified legal terms, often divided into sections, e.g. “The Court’s Reasoning”, “The Remedy”, etc., in the style of law reports. Sometimes posts deal with less specific matters, reporting on cases decided by the Courts in other countries or brought to the European Court of Justice or measures under discussion in Parliament, as in the following post, actually a “guest post” by the Director of Human Rights Policy at JUSTICE: Time to untangle the debate over secret courts - Angela Patrick September 24, 2012 by 1 Crown Office Row Tomorrow, Liberal Democrats will debate the Justice and Security Bill and will vote on saying no to the Government’s controversial secret courts proposals. Played in the press as a good opportunity to put clear blue water between the coalition partners, the motion will give a [sic] party members a chance to speak out on a Bill which many see as an anathema to the traditional liberal commitment to open, fair and equal access to justice. The Bill would - for the first time - introduce the controversial “closed material procedure” (CMP) into our ordinary civil justice system. In CMP, one party to proceedings and their legal representatives are excluded from a hearing and from seeing any evidence, argument or judgment associated with closed material, leaving Special Advocates The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 55 (security vetted lawyers) who they cannot discuss the case with to represent their interests as best as possible. This post examines various aspects of the Bill under discussion and systematically refutes its alleged advantages, arguing against the Minister’s contentions. The tone is openly argumentative with recourse to adverbials of stance (unfortunately) and evaluative expressions (all-too-easy, doubtful, rightly controversial, highly unlikely, disastrous), and ample recourse to concessive constructions (with three occurrences of however, three of but and one of although in less than 1,400 words). The informative purpose of the blog is also made evident by the weekly posting of a “UK Human Rights Roundup”, a weekly bulletin of human rights news, preceded by a headline that lists all the items covered: Abu Hamza, teachers’ anonymity and Chagos refugees - The Human Rights Roundup October 1, 2012 by Wessen Jazrawi Welcome back to the UK Human Rights Roundup, your weekly bulletin of human rights news. The full list of links can be found here. You can also find our table of human rights cases here and previous roundups here. In the news: A few fairly major issues to chew over this week: we have commentary on the controversial Sarah Catt abortion case, responses to the Strasbourg decision on indefinite prison sentences in the UK, and more additions to the debate about religion and human rights, among other things. Chief Coroner appointed The Coroners and Justice Act 2009 provided for wide-ranging reforms of the coroners system in the UK, but not all of it has been implemented so far. The discussion of the case and three others follows for about 900 words, with references to various articles in the press. An “in the courts” section ensues, with references to the relative cases (e.g. James, Wells and Lee v. UK [2012] (Chamber Judgment)), an invitation to “Sign up to free human rights updates” and an index with a list of other human rights items readers may be interested in. In general, the language is highly qualified, although not technical, and this is so not only in posts but also in comments that tend to be quite long (occasionally even 400-500 words) and as argumentative as the posts, thus providing evidence of a community of interested and competent followers. Wall Street Journal Law Blog The Wall Street Journal Law Blog is representative of journalism blogs, some of them hosted on the website of a newspaper or magazine, others posted on adhoc created news and blogging websites (e.g. The Huffington Post). As I have shown elsewhere (Garzone 2012), in journalism blogs the genre is hybridized Giuliana Garzone 56 with forms of news discourse, and in particular with the editorial or the news story. See the following example: Sep 28, 2012 10: 48 10: 48 AM ET Bank of America Still Banking Legal Costs By David Benoit Bank of America wipes off one more unknown hanging over its head from the financial crisis with a $2.43 billion settlement today, but at the same time shows it legal costs are still piling up. The Charlotte bank announced the big settlement with shareholders who had sued about its shotgun wedding to Merrill Lynch, alleging BofA hid Merrill’s pile of looming and mounting losses from shareholders who were voting to approve the deal. BofA continues to deny all the allegations, but says it settled to put this behind it. “Resolving this litigation removes uncertainty and risk and is in the best interests of our shareholders,” said CEO Brian Moynihan. […] The post is obviously constructed according to the golden rules of journalism, starting with a lead (“Bank of America wipes off one more unknown ...”), and expanding the story gradually (“in installments ”, van Dijk 1988), being organized in a typically non linear pattern that has been conceptualized in the literature as an ‘inverted pyramid’ (Bell 1991: 168-169; Conley 2002) or as an ‘orbital structure’ (Iedema/ Feez/ White 1994; White 1997, 1998; also White 2000: 388-389). As emerged clearly from the analysis of forms of self-mention (s. Table 3 above), in posts first person subjects occur only occasionally, and mostly in quotations or interviews, while they are found more frequently in comments, which are usually relatively few. In this case there were four: 9: 58 am September 28, 2012 Ken Lewis wrote : all right already…I’ll open up my checkbook and help out. How much? 10: 39 am September 28, 2012 Fat Cat wrote : This Merrill / BofA deal is one of the best examples of corporate greed and all that has gone wrong on Wall St. BofA had to pay $2.3Billion to stop suits that basically said they made a bad deal that was fraudulent to shareholders because BofA witheld information and lied about huge bonuses and perks for ML insiders. Many Fat Cats at Merrill that struck this deal made millions just months after the deal closed. They stole money. They are criminals and BofA hid the truth. $2.3 Billion - I think this is an admission of guilt. Maybe greedy Wall St. bankers will now think twice about striking such back room payoffs. I doubt it. 10: 41 am September 28, 2012 The Legal Blog (Blawg): Generic Integrity and Variation 57 Carolinian wrote : BofA will pay $2.43 billion for allegations that it denies? What would BofA pay for allegations that it admits? 10: 57 am September 28, 2012 Whatever wrote : When will BofA go away? As can be seen, comments are characterised by a relatively informal and personal style and tend to be highly polemic, with the longer ones taking an argumentative approach (as in Fat Cat’s comment above). This indicates that, given the hardly interpersonal tone of the posts, readers that actually put in comments are highly motivated and really want to make a point. All in all, for its very nature ‘Wall Street Journal’ is less genuinely a blog than the others examined here, exhibiting many of the features of online newspapers. However, it provides evidence of a desire to preserve its “blogging” character through a consistent effort to maintain the peripheral features of the genre, first and foremost the personal “presence” of the bloggers by means of photographs and an indication of their position (Bureau Chief, Reporter, Contributor), while the lead writer (Joe Palazzolo at the time when the corpus was collected) is presented more extensively (cf. Figure 1). Figure 1 A screenshot of the Wall Street Journal Law Blog’s Hompage, 28 September 2012. 3 Conclusions The analysis of various indicators of variation across the blawgs examined in this study shows that a degree of differentiation does exist among them, but Giuliana Garzone 58 certainly not so substantial as to jeopardize the integrity of the sub-genre of the legal blog. Findings indicate an acute awareness of the generic requirements to be met by blogs in a context where in many cases the genre has evolved radically, causing hybridisation and the rise of new sub-genres. What the four blawgs have in common is their general intent to talk about legal cases and questions, critically debating the main issues, but the perspectives they propose are to some extent different, with convergences between ‘Above the Law’ and ‘Magistrates’, more oriented towards thought sharing and personal involvement, on the one hand, and ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Wall Street Journal’, more generally informative, on the other. Accordingly, all four blawgs preserve the personal individualistic component originally constitutive of the blog genre, as the analysis of self-mention has shown, but to a different degree. In the case of ‘Above the Law’ this individualistic component takes the form of considerations concerning the profession, with a more specific focus on workplace relations and conditions in the law firms, while in ‘Magistrates’ it is realized through more existential tones and attention for relevant duties and ethical aspects. The difference between the two emerges clearly if one looks at linguistic choices, as JPs maintaining ‘Magistrates’ are subject to restrictions in language use because of their institutional role, while the lawyers writing ‘Above the Law’ are free to use colloquial, sometimes even vulgar, language. As regards the other two blogs, in ‘Human Rights’ the focus is more specifically on the discussion of cases and stance-taking vis-à-vis human rights related problems, and the tone is that typical of the legal profession, with occasional militant tones. In the least personally oriented of the four blogs, ‘Wall Street Journal’ a journalistic tone mostly prevails and the individualistic and interactive character typical of blogs is reduced, but “blogness” is artificially maintained by means of the deliberate preservation of peripheral features. A factor to be considered is that the writers of AL, ‘Human Rights’ and ‘Magistrates’ are practitioners who, in their blogging function, take on alternatively the two main roles described by Orin Kerr as typical of blogging, i.e. the role of subject matter experts who take advantage of the unfiltered character of the blog as a communication tool and the role of generalist intellectuals who also rely on their legal expertise to comment upon non-strictly legal topics, thus seizing the opportunity to become “public intellectuals” (Kerr 2006: 8-10). 11 These roles are in addition to the informative function of bringing topical legal issues to the attention of users, and informing them about the main issues at stake in each case. The latter function is the main one performed by the ‘Wall Street Journal’ blog, which however strives to maintain some distinctive features of the blog in order to qualify as a member of the genre and manages to do so, at least at face value. 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Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ Peter Kastberg (Aarhus University, Denmark) 1 On the ‘Us’ and ‘Them’ dichotomy in communicating about science Bertrand Russell, Nobel Laureate in literature, philosopher of science and mathematician, once stated that there are two kinds of people: those who produce knowledge and those who consume it. While such a dichotomization is by no means unproblematic, it is - nevertheless - not altogether untrue. From the point of view of sociology of knowledge (e.g., Berger and Luckmann,1991 [1966]) this dichotomy can, generally speaking, be said to be a byproduct of the division of labour. If we look at scientific knowledge in particular, and that is the point of departure of this paper, the ever increasing specialization of scientific disciplines, and - consequently - of the knowledge(s) they produce, tend to further or accelerate this dichotomization between the-haves-and-the-have-nots of scientific knowledge 1 . In his now famous Rede Lecture of 1959, C.P. Snow (1993 [1959]), himself a scientist as well as a novelist, coined the phrase of the “two cultures” of western societies - one humanistic and one scientific. He would add that not only do these two disparate cultures exist in the industrialized society; they are also continuously growing apart. Especially the latter is problematic to Snow- both when it comes to the insightful management of intellectual resources and also, in more general terms, when it comes to upholding social peace. Regardless of what we may label the issue at hand, both Russell and Snow would probably agree with Bauer et al. when they state that ”[a]s long as science and society are not entirely identical spheres, the issues of the public’s understanding of science, and of scientists understanding of the public, are here to stay” (Bauer et al.,2007). This has spurred what looks very much like an enlightenment project along the lines of the implication formulated by Brossard and Lewenstein (2010). Their premise reads: “Complex scientific issues are an inherent part of modern societies and are continuously debated in the public sphere.” From this they follow that “a basic understanding of these complex issues should be made possible for all individuals living in societies that value and respect their citizens’ views.” At a more abstract societal level, these thoughts mirror Putnam’s idea of participation and deliberation (2004) which, in turn, are heralded as the ideological undercurrent of most democracies (of a western persuasion). 1 Needless to say, between the different disciplines or sciences there are also ‘us’ and ‘them’ dichotomies; but these are beyond the scope of this paper. Peter Kastberg 64 In lieu of the above, I feel quite comfortable in venturing that it seems that by acknowledging this dichotomy, we are driven to a logic or a discourse, as it were, which compels us to also recognize the (social and societal) problems inherent in it; as well as to contemplate how we might overcome them 2 . In a European setting, at least, this logic or discourse spurs a feeling of déjà vu with core elements of the European Enlightenment (with a capital E); and speaking of which, the statement by the champion of continental European Enlightenment, Immanuel Kant, that “a public can achieve enlightenment only slowly” (1784), seems to be as true today as it was over two centuries ago. For when it comes to communicating the scientist’s specialized knowledge to a public of laypeople, the underlying assumption is that barriers of different kinds exist between producers and consumers of this specialized knowledge. In this paper I will frame this as a communication theoretical issue, i.e., as a communication problem (as defined by Windahl et al., 2009). It follows from this perspective-taking (Perner et al., 2003) that the main theoretical lens through which I will observe, discuss and evaluate this dichotomy is one of communication theory (e.g., Littlejohn and Foss, 2011, for a relative recent and comprehensive overview). In order to situate this paper in a disciplinary context with specific relevance to the dichotomy, however, the communication theory approach needs to be informed by insights from a discipline in which the dichotomy is a pivotal point. Needless to say, many research fields, from political science to feminism, feature aspects of this dichotomy in their object of study. But a few disciplines also have this dichotomy (as well as the ensuing logic or discourse) as its raison d’être. Choosing, among them, Public Understanding of Science 3 (e.g., Knight, 2006) as a background discipline for situating the issue is mainly due to two reasons: First of all, Public Understanding of Science (henceforth PUS)is the acknowledged field of study which critically investigates the public’s exposure to, awareness and understanding of the advances of science, engineering and technology as well as their implications for society. Secondly, because the formative idea behind PUS research as a disciplinary field is the appreciation that the relationship between science and public, prototypically institutionalized as the relationship between the expert and the layperson, is, in many ways, a conflictuous one (Kastberg, 2010). Even if what is deemed problematic may be seen from a myriad of perspectives (e.g., gender, culture, power, status, ‘capital’ etc.) the ur-point of departure is the idea that between the expert and layperson there exists a knowledge asymmetry (Kastberg, 2011) and that this state of (social) affairs in not advantageous to the 2 As I will present below, there are quite a few research disciplines dedicated to this logic or discourse. 3 Other fields of study with a similar focus on this dichotomy include Public Appreciation of Science, Science and Technology Studies, Science Communication, and Knowledge Communication. Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ 65 layperson. Both of these reasons feed directly into the research interest of this paper, i.e., the communication theoretical issue of conveying science to lay audiences. This, in turn, entails that whereas communication theory constitutes the foreground, PUS research makes up the background of the approach of this paper. 1.1 Research agenda The research agenda of this paper is three-pronged. It is to present how science is typically communicated to lay publics; I will do so by means of presenting a select history of ideas of recent PUS research (section 2). It is to discuss the ways in which science communicative endeavours may afford deposits in the ‘other’; I will do so in order to gauge to what extent PUS activities - as seen from a communication theoretical perspective - may aid in the overcoming of the dichotomy (section 3). It is to critically interpret and evaluate how the ‘other’ is appreciated in typical science communicative activities (section 4). The article ends by deriving a rudimentary, diagnostic, 2 nd order apparatus which may serve as a reference point for reflecting on the ‘other’ in connection with science communication research - as well as in real-life science communication activities. 2 Public understanding of science: three research generations Within the PUS research field, there is a general consensus that three generations have dominated its history of ideas (Bauer et al., 2007); each generation of research can be subsumed under a heading pertaining to its underlying assumption of the lay public and - derived from that - its prevalent research interest. In what has been labeled 1 st generation PUS research, the points of departure are that a) the public is in a knowledge deficit when it comes to basic knowledge of science, and that b) this state of affairs needs rectifying. Consequently, emphasis is on instilling in the public a “scientific literacy” (e.g., Miller, 1987). The remedy of choice, as it were, in 1 st generation PUS, which, according to Bauer et al. (2007), was dominating PUS research and PUS activities from the 1960s to the mid 1980s,was public mass education. Looking at school curricula and continuous education programs from the period mirrors this. Even if, in the ensuing 2 nd generation PUS research, which, again according to Bauer et al. (2007), dominated PUS research and PUS activities from the mid 1980s to the mid 1990s, the public is still seen as being in a scientific deficit, the underlying idea is not one of “promoting science to the public” but one of “science education for the public” (Kurath and Gisler, 2009). Along with this change in perspective, comes a change of focus; PUS research now also encompasses studies of publics’ attitudes towards science - and not merely what a public would retain in terms of scientific knowledge. So although remnants of the “deficit model” (e.g., Miller, 2001) of 1 st Peter Kastberg 66 generation PUS still lingers on (Irwin, 2001), PUS is now informed by another logic or discourse. Namely the notion that the degree to which a public is scientifically literate corresponds proportionally with said public’s favorable attitude towards science. 3 rd generation PUS research, however, shows that while there is certainly a correlation between knowledge of and trust in science it is not necessarily a causal one. As Evans and Durant (1995) have demonstrated “the proposition that greater public understanding will lead to higher levels of public support for science” proved to be unfounded. Current 3 rd generation PUS research seeks to leave behind the idea of the “deficit model” altogether as well any quest for putting the public’s understanding of science on a formula - be it based on knowledge of or on attitude towards science. Epitomized by the European Commission’s slogan-like credo of “Science and Society”, 3 rd generation PUS has turned to an ideology of convergence, giving rise to researching the democratizing of science movements (McCormick, 2007) and participatory science governance (Bora and Hausendorf, 2006) etc. Concrete examples of 3 rd generation PUS activities could be facilitating a lay public’s “grass-root action through affective and rational engagement with climate change” (Ockwell et al., 2009). Or it could be the University of Wisconsin Madison’s endeavor to “empower citizens” to “engage independently” in “decision making about science and technology”; a process intending to ensure that the citizens can “have tangible impacts on [the development] of nanotechnology” (Powell and Colin, 2008). In effect, 3 rd generation PUS calls for the traditional roles of expert and layperson to be replaced by the notion of “co-researchers” (Callon et al., 2009). Summing up the core trajectory of this brief and select history of ideas of PUS, it is quite safe to conclude that the main movement has been away from an ideology of opposition, inherent in the “deficit model”, towards an ideology of convergence (Kastberg, 2007), inherent the call for the democratization of science 4 . Viewing the dichotomy of expert and layperson through the lens of PUS research also reveals that despite easily available knowledge with regards science, technology and engineering and despite the fact that science communication endeavours are almost ubiquitous in industrialized societies 5 , these facts - in and of themselves - do not elicit an 4 Even if this progression of generations is relatively clear and well-researched, a caveat should be issued here; for in what we may call real-life practical PUS activities these generations do in fact co-exist. The relatively speaking younger generation need not eo ipso surpass the relative older one in all respects; it is therefore imperative that we do not perceive of these generations as mutually exclusive or incommensurable in the Kuhnian sense (1995[1962]) but rather as incremental or evolutionary expansions and overlaps of one another in different ways (Lakatos, 1978 et passim). 5 We are in many ways immersed in science communication. TV, for instance, abounds with not only shows on science, but indeed whole TV channels and networks dedicate themselves to mediating the advances of science and technology to its audiences. Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ 67 increased understanding let alone acceptance of science, technology and enengineering. This, naturally, constitutes quite a compelling argument for looking at how or to what extent we, by evoking communication theory proper, may help further public understanding of science. 3 A communication theoretical reading of the three PUS research generations The focal shifts in the above three generations of PUS research quite tellingly - if not surprisingly - mirror a similar trajectory in science communication formats: From communication seen as transmission via communication seen as interaction to communication seen as co-action (e.g., Beebe et al., 2004). PUS activities as transmission could for instance be monologues (e.g., a formal lecture held by a scientist to a lay audience), PUS activities as interaction would add or entail some kind of feedback loop (e.g., questionanswer sequences), whereas PUS activities as co-action would be designed as cooperative endeavours (e.g., upstream engagement when it comes to science policies).Each communicative format caters to a different outcome, to a different knowledge deposit in the sense of Dewey (1933). And although Dewey predates PUS research, his firm belief that “[t]he deposit is what counts” is at the very heart of the PUS logic of overcoming the gap between expert and layperson (section 2). So before I exemplify each communicative format below (i.e., transmission, interaction and co-action respectively), I allow myself to briefly introduce the potential for affording deposits of each format since this is where we may establish a bridge from PUS research to communication theory. Due to the fact that the PUS activity that is an instantiation of transmission ends with (actually: is) the act of transmitting, we, strictly speaking, have no way of gauging the knowledge deposit of a transmission as it occurs. In the case of the lecture, for instance, everything said may have been heard, understood and accepted - then again it may not. However, when it comes to interactive PUS activities, the knowledge deposit can be interpreted as it occurs based on the feedback from the audience, be it the number and relevance of follow-up questions, or the critical remarks put forward etc. The deposit emerging from a co-actional PUS activity on the other hand is gaugeable on the basis of the cooperative activity itself, i.e., the deposit is what the participants in the PUS activity can agree on, what they are able to co-construct. Turning to printed media science communication is quite obvious here, too, in as much as many omnibus newspapers feature science sections; add to that the fact that glossy magazines on popularization of science are to be found in almost every kiosk. Last but certainly not least: in the realm of edutainment science seems to be quite the trend; examples are numerous if we look at the various forensic-science-meets-crimeshows on TV, in which the protagonist resorts to cleverly construed bits of forensic science (and sometimes science fiction) in order to solve a crime. Peter Kastberg 68 3.1 Science communication as transmission As transmission, science communication - whatever the modality - is a linear process from a sender to a receiver (e.g., Theodorson and Theodorson, 1969). Communication-wise, the format is oriented towards the sender, i.e., communication is primarily a matter of sending out messages while trying to avoid “noise” (Shanon and Weaver, 1949). Strictly speaking, it is not of primary interest what the receiver may retain from the communication, since, again strictly speaking, it goes without saying that (ideally) the receiver retains what is transmitted. The primary interest, consequently, is that the sender delivers, as it were. In a learning perspective this idea corresponds with the idea of the student as “the empty vessel” (e.g., Feiman-Nemser and Remillard, 1995) or the “recitation model” (e.g., Eisner, 1991) of communication. Formal monologous lectures would be examples of this kind of science communication. Here everybody in the audience is offered the same kind of scientific information, and in the same way. In terms of retention or “deposit” (Dewey, 1933) we have no way of knowing in situ what an audience may have learned from such an experience. As seen from the point of view of communication theory it is, then, quite problematic that much PUS research still seems to discursively reproduce the idea that science communication in many instances is “disseminating hard science” (Lin, 2011) to lay audiences. This notion also lingers on if we look towards science communicative genres par excellence like the “popular scientific magazines” that are viewed as “one of the most important ways of spreading new inventions and new technological items” (Ricci, 2010). When it comes to science education, the same knee-jerk reaction, as it were, is also to be found in statements lamenting that science education often fails in the task of “basic transmission” (Siemsen, 2010) 6 . Apart from the fact that this idea is definitely not in tune with recent or 3 rd order PUS research (section 2), it is imperative, from the point of view of communication theory, that the underlying assumption - be it conscious or unconscious - “that language transfers human thoughts and feelings” (Reddy, 1995) be subject to critique. For, as Reddy elaborates: “After all, we do not literally “get thoughts across” when we talk, do we? This sounds like mental telepathy or clairvoyance, and suggest that communication transfers thought processes somehow bodily. Actually, no one receives anyone else’s thoughts directly in their minds when they are using language” (op.cit.) 7 . It is rather the case that communication “seems […] to help one person to construct out of his own stock of mental stuff” (op.cit.) knowledge of one’s own. Returning to science communication 6 Hand in hand with the idea of transmission is an idea of knowledge as a thing, something that can be transmitted or spread much like commodities; the scope of this article does not allow me to discuss this notion, but I have critiqued it in several articles (e.g., Kastberg et al., 2007, and Kastberg, 2011). 7 Italics in the original. Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ 69 proper this is mirrored in Ødegaard’s (2003) belief that “[i]nstead of merely transmitting knowledge of science from the science text book … it has to be re-worked and re-constructed” by an audience. A real-life example of the failure of attempting to transmit specialized knowledge to a broader audience is from July of 2010 when the new European Union logo for organic food targeted at final customers was introduced on an EU-wide scale. Despite the fact that “the introduction of a mandatory EU logo for organic food was generally welcomed in all countries, trust in the underlying production standards and the inspection system was not very pronounced” (Janssen and Hamm, 2010). As Connor and Christy point out “consumer misunderstanding of the [organic] label’s meaning points to a need for better communication if the label is to function optimally” (2004). From the point of view of communication theory this hardly comes as a surprise since any sign (be it a logo, a word, a text or an image) is - for all intents and purposes - rendered communicatively futile if the intended audience does not understand it. This in turn leads to the communication theoretical insight that as transmission this kind of science communication does not elicit interaction (see section 3.2) or coaction (see section 3.3). It may, however, elicit re-action. Returning once more to the science lecture, applauding (or booing for that matter) is an audience’s ritualistic reaction to any (science) lecture; however, applauding per se does not mean “understood”, “accepted” and “hereafter my actions will correspond accordingly”. The applause (or the lack of it) merely gives an indication as to the satisfaction of the audience. Satisfaction with regards to how the lecture was delivered, however, is no guaranty for having understood or retained. In order to gauge a deposit, follow-up activities of an interactive nature, e.g., control questions, quizzes or the like, are required. In communication theoretical terms we may conclude that whereas transmission may be necessary, it is by no means sufficient if the goal is one of ensuring deposits. This is also the main reason for why - and this then forms the transition from transmission to interaction (section 3.2 below) - in real-life PUS activities of the transmission type there is a growing tendency to insert or add an interactive component of some kind. As in the case of the TED Talks it may be deliberately adding an interactive quality to the talk, for instance in the sense that TED Talks uploaded unto YouTube allows for feedback - albeit asynchronously - from Internet viewers. Also in other forms of traditionally more monologous science communication events, like the traditional science theater plays (e.g., Shephard-Barr, 2006), the performances on stage are increasingly being enriched interactively by offering “talk-back sessions” (Baillie, 2007) or by arranging a “post-performance symposium” (Lustig and Shepherd-Barr, 2002). Peter Kastberg 70 3.2 Science communication as interaction It is a prerequisite for communication viewed and carried out as interaction that it cannot take place merely because a sender has sent, so to speak, but first once an audience has - in one way or the other - interacted with a sender (e.g., Katz and Kahn, 1978).The prototypical example of this kind of science communication would be the science demonstration or the science show. Here a particular scientific experiment is (re-)enacted in front of or with the aid of an audience. An early - and for the genre: formative - example is Robert Doyle’s scientific demonstrations in the Royal Society in London in 1660 where he established “a key trope of modern scientific demonstrations” (Smith, 2009) when he conducted his now famous air-pump experiments. In its current form, science demonstrations are more often than not part of a university’s outreach programme - a good example is The Science Theater at the Michigan State University. Or it forms an integrated part of science museums - a current example is the Crime Scene Live at the Natural History Museum in London, UK, where the audience is encouraged to play the part of a CSI collecting and processing evidence. A closer look at university-sponsored science shows reveals that they are typically performed by natural science students re-enacting the gist of original physical or chemical experiments in front of high school kids or grade school children. At such a show, the university students will typically arrange props on and around a table, creating the illusion that the table and its immediate surrounding is a (rudimentary) science lab. During the science fair the university student will guide the children through the demonstrations, while at the same time explaining the physical or chemical processes involved. The audience will be encouraged to take active part in the demonstrations at preselect times. E.g., try to pry from one another two metal cups sucked together by vacuum, push a button, which in turn sucks the air out of a glass sphere and thereby inflating a marshmallow or the like. Compared to communication as transmission, communication as interaction features an audience that not merely reacts but one that interacts. The interaction takes place on two levels: between actor and audience and between audience, actor and the props used. Although science communication as interaction is closely related to dialogic learning formats (Perkins, 2009), it is typically qualified significantly by the fact that the dialogue merges with the hands-on practice of helping to conduct experiments. Due to the proximity (or even intimacy) of standing around a table where a demonstration takes place, the audience has the possibility to interact synchronously; it can ask questions, it can comment, and/ or it can handle the props. Among other things, this means that science communication as interaction is a mixture of play and performance in a wider sense of the word (Schechner, 2002) and thus closely related to learning how to play a game while being mentored and guided by a Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ 71 more knowledgeable comrade or peer 8 . In further contrast to transmission, which does not per se allow for gauging the learning on the side of audience, the learning outcome in the audience resulting from interaction can in fact be appreciated (if not meticulously measured) in the interactive encounter itself. It could take on the form of gauging the degree to which answers to questions pertaining to what an audience just heard or experienced are correct, it could be allowing an audience to duplicate the experiment just shown in order to see if it was in fact understood etc. Looking at the PUS research trajectory (section 2) through the lens of communication theory, we may safely say that many 2 nd generation PUS activities take on the form of interaction - and with good reason as we have seen. However interactive this type of science communication may be, everything that occurs within it is nevertheless still designed in advance and controlled by the sender, by the expert. Consequently, the quest for emancipating the audience, in a Freireian (2007[1968]) sense of the word, is what constitutes the raison d’être of science communication as co-action. 3.3 Science communication as co-action The science communication events which I have labeled co-actional, are in two important respects quite different from the previous two communicative formats. First of all, being co-actional means that the traditional roles of sender and receiver are no longer quite adequate. As a co-actional endeavor a science communication event is co-constructed by equal participants. Secondly, the actual event, while it certainly is the pinnacle of the work carried out by the participants, is not the core activity. The core activity is the co-actional process leading up to the event. In order to illustrate a co-actional communication activity I will present and discuss the Danish “MathTheater” project (Andreasen et al., 2007). Spurred by the experience that many 5 th graders would agree with Knight’s laconic statement “that much science is rather dull” (2006), a group of science teachers paired up with a drama and a math consultant in order to see if the theater format might change that perception - at least for one group of 5 th graders. Under the guidance of experts (in casu: teachers and consultants) the children would design, develop, and produce their own MathTheater play, and in the process transform a standard 5 th grade math syllabus into a theater performance; a performance that the children eventually performed before an audience of other children, teachers, and parents. In terms of scenography and plot, the play featured, among other things, a cardboard castle lived in by medieval knights wearing geometrically shaped shields and armour. The 8 As an additional note, it is a strong testimony to the educational merits of the science demonstrations that one of its more ritualized expressions, i.e., the anatomical theater, is today seamlessly integrated in and forms an indispensable part of medical and surgical programmes at universities all over the world. Peter Kastberg 72 greedy knights would hoard gold, meticulously weigh the heavy metal and argue amongst themselves over who would be allotted what percentage of the gold. In another act pirates would roam the Caribbean, measure the nautical miles travelled and, on their journey, discover an uninhabited, exotic island; here they would ponder the geometrical shape of the island’s volcano (a truncated cone, as it turned out) - all the while drinking rum and fighting amongst themselves as true pirates do. In the final act, on a perilous scientific expedition to Greenland, the weight of ice as well as the crystalline structure of snowflakes would be duly measured and documented. When it comes to the deposit, neither the play nor the process was an add-on to math class, they were in fact math class. The children were not (merely) the audience of transmitted scientific knowledge neither were they (merely) to interact with predefined demonstrations; the children were in fact co-acting with their teachers as well as with each other and, thus, co-constructing both the process as well as the end result. Concretely, in the process of making the dialogue, which they were later to perform, comprehensible to themselves, they were in effect making math comprehensible to themselves. In terms of deposit, the play itself became a testimony to what the children had learned. Despite these indisputable, co-actional qualities, this format of science communication is a relative seldom occurrence. Apart from the fact that it takes a certain willingness on behalf of all the participants - in this case children and teachers -, as well as a certain training - in this case especially on behalf of the teachers -, co-actional activities are often also dependent on the possibility to alter the mindset of whoever is funding the activity - in this case the school’s management. Looking at PUS through the lens of co-actional communication, it is quite obvious that co-action is mirrored in recent or 3 rd generation PUS activities; for instance in the well-known consensus conferences and other form of bottom-up PUS activities (Powell and Colin, 2008), i.e., PUS activities that are in tune with the Zeitgeist, if you will, of late modern industrialized societies (section 1). But even if such engagementcentered PUS activities (Bauer et al., 2007) are highly participative they are not democratic in the strictest sense of the word, but rather activities that employ select features otherwise well-known in a participatory democracy. Even as co-action, science communication is initiated, facilitated and guided by experts (in the above examples teachers and consultants, it could just as easily have been scientists, institutions or even policies). In that sense we are dealing with science governance (Bora and Hausendorf, 2006) rather than true and unrestricted democratization of science. But in stark contrast to the other two formats, however, the outcome, the deposit, of a co-actional endeavour is a) not necessarily given in advance and b) may influence both positions - and not just the ‘receiver’ (or layperson). Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ 73 4 Appreciating the ‘Other’: three implicatures as impetus for further discussions It is now time to return to the ur-point of departure, i.e., the ‘us’ and ‘them’ dichotomy of communicating science (section 1) and - in doing so - to pair this with the insights gained through the presentation of the trajectory of PUS research (section 2) as well as through the discussions of the science communication formats (section 3). It became clear that in both PUS research and science communication, regardless of generation or format, an impression of the ‘other’, in casu: the lay audience, would always be inherently implied. Taking a closer look at the ‘other’ in the above presentations, it is also quite clear that even if - both in PUS research and in communication theory - a general movement towards emancipating the audience is observable, the end goal has not been reached (yet). It remains an open question to what extent such emancipation, when it comes to science communication, is feasible let alone desirable. I will refrain from entering into that kind of speculation here as elaborations to that effect would expand beyond the stipulated research agenda (section 1.1); instead I will examine the ‘other’ as seen through the combined lens of PUS research and communication theory (as depicted above) and abstract from that a set of appreciations. I abstract by means of implicatures and leave these appreciations as points of departure for further research into the ‘other’ within the general framework of communication science. As we saw, 1 st generation PUS research aims at filling the knowledge gap between expert and lay; and science communication as transmission seems to be the obvious vehicle with which to achieve just that. If we push 1 st generation PUS as transmission to its logical conclusion, then filling the gap means that the lay comes to know what the expert knows 9 . The implicature reads that here we are in fact dealing with a call for assimilation; i.e., that the ‘other’, the lay person, de facto becomes a hologram of the scientist. For a variety of reasons - political, educational, financial, intellectual- faith in this kind of Pygmalion effect is, however, probably not founded in reality. 2 nd generation PUS research aims for the lay to not only understand science but also to appreciate it; and science communication as interaction seems to be an appropriate vehicle for that task. In interactive science encounters the layperson is encouraged to engage with the scientific topic at hand; in many instances of science communication as interaction, the laypersons are even invited to take on the role of the (would-be) scientists and conduct experiments of their own - albeit guided by experts - adding an experiential quality to the encounter with science. But even if the relationship between expert and lay in the concrete communicative encounter may be an 9 I will refrain from contemplating the feasibility of this conclusion, but merely state that in my view it would seem to stretch credulity quite a ways. Peter Kastberg 74 interactive one, it is not reciprocal. Science communication as interaction is still designed, staged if you will, around the expert’s expertise and the layperson’s non-expertise. The positions of expert and layperson are never questioned in the concrete encounter neither are - somewhat more abstractly speaking - the institutions of expert and layperson as such. The implicature reads, therefore, that even if we are dealing with a call for integration, it is an integration of the kind in which one sphere of society, i.e., the lay audience, is meant to immigrate into another sphere, i.e., that of the expert in question, leaving no doubt as to the hegemonic status of the expert. 3 rd generation PUS research aims at participative and bottom-up engagement at all levels of science; and here science communication as co-action would be the obvious choice. In 3 rd generation PUS, with its call for upstream engagement (Kurath and Gisler, 2009), democratization of science (Brown, 2009) and mobilization of the public (McCormick, 2007) the positions of expert and lay respectively are in effect dissolved - as is, consequently, the border between science and science communication. Pushed to its logical conclusion, the implicature reads that here we are dealing with complementation, i.e., with the strict communal ideal that the expert and layperson complement one another 10 - that they do in fact exist in a symbiosis of mutual dependencies 11 . Looking back at the presentations and discussions in this paper in general and the above section in particular we have seen the appreciation of the ‘other’ develop and progress from a call for homophily to an acceptance of heterophily. Naturally, the question now arises as to whether this (current) theoretical capstone, which in essence is quite similar to Gilroy’s call for “conviviality” (2005), renders the ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dichotomy of science communication obsolete? 4.1 Quo Vadis science communication? Well, if indeed 3 rd generation PUS and co-actional communication had made the dichotomy obsolete; we would - in many ways and radically so - inhabit a different world by now. It would, thus, appear that there is, in fact, no panacea, no magic bullet, if you will. It seems that the dichotomy - for all its problems - is a social fact (in the sense of Durkheim) and that science communication - for all its shortcomings - is destined to stay the forum where expert and layperson meet. This being the case, and in an attempt to avoid the Scylla of the quest for the algorithm of “good” science communication and to steer clear of the Charybdis of rampant relativism, I turn to pragmatism to frame my concluding remarks. 10 This notion is inspired by Danish Nobel Laureate in physics Niels Bohr’s conceptualization of complementarity. 11 Naturally, taking this communal ideal to its conclusion would open up a Pandora’s Box of - institutional as well as societal - problems and possibilities; needless to say, it is beyond the scope of this paper the elaborate on them. Communicating Science: Appreciations of the ‘Other’ 75 MacKay laconically states that “the public cares little about knowledge for its own sake” (2007), which, in turn, entails that we should maybe start by looking for what one of the founding fathers of pragmatism, Henry James, would probably have called the “cash value” of science communication. In keeping with the pragmatic vein and adhering to 3 rd order PUS and co-action (since they do represent the capstone, as it were, of current and relevant reresearch) I derive that this value needs to be of value for both positions ininvolved. In order to pursue what may count as a value for both positions, I propose that we do not set out by establishing yet more elaborate and yet more intricate models - neither of the ‘other’ nor of communicative formats - but that we go ‘ad fontes’, as it were, by looking at what triggers science comcommunication activity in the first place. In order to thus diagnose - albeit at an abstract level - what triggers a science communication in the first place, I turn to Aristotle’s idea of appetites. He held that we, as human beings, have appetites for real and apparent goods. These appetites, in turn, trigger our actions; actions, as it were, the successful outcome of which is satisfaction 12 .In lieu of the pragmatic approach, I proceed by presenting a rudimentary diagnostic apparatus of what triggers science communicative action and satisfaction. The diagnose includes - but is not necessarily limited to - the issues of motivation and relevance. Congenial with 3 rd generation PUS and co-actional thinking about science communication I am compelled not to see the elements of this diagnose from any one privileged position, but to see them from both positions involved. This in turn means that when it comes to motivation, the question we should ask when examining its trigger mechanism would be a) what motivates the layperson to engage in a science communication endeavor (? ) and b) what motivates the expert to engage in a science communication endeavor? Obviously - and for many reasons - what is motivating for one position need not be so for the other. For a universityemployed scientist, communication about her science to lay audiences may be extrinsically motivated (Deci and Ryan,2000), e.g., in the form of a dreaded outreach activity imposed on her by university management; or it may be intrinsically motivated (op.cit.), e.g., stemming from said scientist’s inner, altruistic urge to communicate her findings to the public. For the layperson attending her public lecture, the motivation for showing up could indeed be intrinsic, i.e., a quest for personal knowledge. It could, however, also be motivated by a want to socialize with like-minded peers, or attending could be motivated by the (extrinsic) urge to construct one’s image as that of an informed citizen for one’s peers to see.When it comes to relevance, the question that needs to be addressed is equally two-sided: i.e., a) what is relevant to know in terms of science content (and why) to the lay person (? ) and b) what 12 This idea is taken up by many fields of study, within communication theory most prominently by the Uses & Gratification school of thought (e.g., Katz et al., 1973-1974 et passim). Peter Kastberg 76 is relevant to communicate in terms of science content (and why) to the expert? What may be deemed crucially relevant by the expert, for instance the discovery of the sodium-potassium pump, need not even be recognized as a topic by the layperson. Even the ardent conviction on the part of the expert that this or that piece of science really should matter to the layperson - for the layperson’s own good - can, and quite effectively so, be countered by the layperson’s indifference. And vice versa. Referring to the question in the title of this concluding subsection, the answer, in tune with the framing of the section, will be a pragmatic one. Pragmatically speaking, a key issue in relation to motivation has to do with the perceived relationship between the cause (or effort) and the expected effect. That is: even the most elaborate science communication campaign is in danger of proving futile if it fails to address the issue of what motivates participation in the first place - for both positions involved. Turning to relevance, we may say that, pragmatically speaking, relevance is a function of a “what’s-init-for-me” calculus. 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Studies in Science Education, Vol. 39, No. 1. (2003), 75-101. Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse: Some Recent Developments Christopher Williams (University of Foggia, Italy) 1 Introduction In 2013 a paper of mine on “The ‘popularization of law’ and ‘law and Plain language’: are they two separate issues? ” appeared in the volume edited by Susan Kermas and Thomas Christiansen on The Popularization of Specialized Discourse and Knowledge Across Communities and Cultures. As I wrote in the opening page of that paper (Williams 2013b: 33, footnote 2), the chapter was loosely based on two presentations, the first of which, entitled ‘The popularization of legal discourse’, was presented at the conference on ‘The popularization of scientific discourse in a changing world: lexical and stylistic choices past and present’ held in Lecce on 26-27 January 2012. The second, entitled ‘Comparing the popularization of law and the popularization of science’, was presented at the conference on ‘Genre variations/ standardization and popularization: Natural sciences, law and commerce’ held in Palermo on 25-27 October 2012. I therefore decided that, for the chapter in this current volume, I would build on some of the conclusions I had reached in the paper I had presented in Palermo and take the opportunity to go beyond what I had written not only for that presentation but also for my chapter featuring in the volume edited by Susan Kermas and Thomas Christiansen and explore other aspects that I had not investigated on those occasions. In particular, in this present paper I wish to focus on two developments that only came to light recently - and hence could not be incorporated into my previous paper - where the question of plain language relating to the legal sphere plays a key role. The first is the so-called ‘Good law’ initiative set up by the UK Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (https: / / www.gov.uk/ good-law) which was officially launched on 16 April 2013. The second is the report on Document Quality Control in Public Administrations and International Organisations coordinated by Silvia Ferreri which was published in July 2013 and presented by Silvia Ferreri and Jacqueline Visconti at the 3 rd Translation Studies Day at the European Commission in Brussels on 25 October 2013. Both projects are concerned with issues relating to the drafting of legally binding texts and with finding satisfactory ways of overcoming the inherent complexity of legal texts and of making them more comprehensible, and also more easily accessible, to a wider public. The first is aimed primarily at a Christopher Williams 82 readership residing in the UK, whereas the second is much more international in scope, reaching beyond the confines of the European Union and taking into consideration also non-EU countries such as the USA, Canada, Switzerland and India. I will begin by looking at the main characteristics of the ‘Good law’ initiative before going on to outline the salient features of Document Quality Control in Public Administrations and International Organisations (henceforth abbreviated as DQC). I will then proceed to analyse both projects in particular from the perspective of plain language in legal discourse before providing some conclusions. 2 The ‘Good law’ initiative Good law means putting accessibility at the heart of what we do, both in terms of law making and enhancing the experience of users. We’re keen to work with others to keep generating ideas of how to do this, while at the same time starting to achieve some tangible improvements. 1 Twenty years ago, legislation was drafted for and used by lawyers. Today, the statute book is accessed and read by millions of people, at legislation.gov.uk - most of whom are not legally trained or qualified. Good law is a golden opportunity to substantially improve access to legislation for all. We are really excited to be involved. 2 These two statements, made respectively by Hayley Rogers, ‘Good law’ project manager at the Office of the Parliamentary Counsel, and by John Sheridan, Head of Legislation Services at the National Archives, point to the main criteria behind the initiative: enhanced access to laws and improved comprehensibility of legal texts not only for practitioners but also for a wider public. The aims of the initiative are outlined by First Parliamentary Counsel Richard Heaton (2013) at the end of his report: 1 Hayley Rogers in ‘Good law News’, Cabinet Office, July 2013, available at https: / / www.gov. uk/ government/ uploads/ system/ uploads/ attachment_data/ file/ 225887/ Good_Law_News _july_2013.pdf (last accessed 1 November 2013). 2 https: / / www.gov.uk/ government/ uploads/ system/ uploads/ attachment_data/ file/ 206073/ Good_law_final_newsletter_may_2013.pdf (last accessed 1 November 2013). Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse 83 - build a shared understanding of the importance of good law; - ensure that legislation is as accessible as possible, and consider what more can be done to improve readability; - reduce the causes and perception of unnecessary complexity; - talk to the judges who authoritatively interpret the law and to the universities which teach it, to avoid confusion and facilitate interpretation. (2013: 30) As is evident from the title of the report - ‘When laws become too complex’ - the underlying concern of the ‘Good law’ initiative is to try to tackle the issue of the excessive intricacy of laws which daunt and confuse not only laypersons but often practitioners themselves: “Even legally qualified users frequently complain about the excessive complexity of legislation and often tend to read the explanatory notes accompanying the Bill, rather than the legislative text” (Heaton 2013: 14). But it is not only for the benefit of non-experts as well as practitioners that the initiative has been set up, but also to promote business and good government in general: […] in my view, we should regard the current degree of difficulty with law as neither inevitable nor acceptable. We should be concerned about it for several reasons. Excessive complexity hinders economic activity, creating burdens for individuals, businesses and communities. It obstructs good government. It undermines the rule of law. (Heaton 2013: 1) In broader terms the initiative “is intended to complement the government’s campaign against red tape and bureaucracy” (Bowcott 2013), also by making the most of digitalization: The digital age enables us to explore the potential of tools for publishing and arranging law, and techniques for diagnosingand predicting how law is used. (Office of the Parliamentary Counsel 2013) One interesting feature of the initiative is, as we have seen, its explicit intention to involve judges and academics in the project of promoting a culture whereby laws are drafted in a more accessible and comprehensible manner. Reporting on a legislative.gov.uk user study, Heaton observes (2013): Unexpectedly, even barristers, judges and academics may find legislation unclear and, occasionally, quite problematic. The Statute Law Society in 2009 found that until recently, legislation, legislative techniques and interpretation were often neglected in undergraduate teaching. (2013: 20) The features briefly outlined above will be discussed in more detail in Section 4. Christopher Williams 84 3 Document quality control in public administrations and international organisations The volume coordinated by Silvia Ferreri, 3 professor of comparative private law at the University of Turin, is part of an ongoing series of publications sponsored by the European Commission on ‘Studies on translation and multilingualism’. The volume is divided into three Parts: I) Historical and Comparative Overview, II) A Survey of National Institutions, Procedures and Tools, and III) Identifying Best Practices and Recommendations for Document Quality Control. The countries examined in terms of their drafting conventions and techniques are the United Kingdom (with a separate chapter on each of the four nations making up the UK), Germany, France, Italy, Switzerland, Finland, the United States, Canada and India. Part I begins by framing the issues of clarity and accessibility of legal documents from a historical and comparative perspective. Part II is divided into two Sections, respectively European and non-European legal drafting experiences. Part III is divided into two chapters, the first on issues of readability, while the second centres around the results of a questionnaire that was specially prepared for that particular volume. In a volume focusing on the comparative approach to legislative drafting, considerable importance is given to the European Union and the problems it has had to face as a multilingual institution made up of 28 Member States. In this respect the experience of the so-called Acquisgroup has been enlightening and indicative of how hard it can be to achieve tangible results in terms of trying to reach a degree of harmonization and agreement among Member States. In 2003 the European Commission set up a Study Group on a European Civil Code which was entrusted with the preparation of a model (a ‘reference’ document) including contract, non-contractual liability, unjustified enrichment, acquisition and loss of ownership of goods, proprietary security rights in movable assets, and trusts. (Ferreri 2013: 28) The outcome of this project which was carried out by the Research Group on Existing EC Private Law (the Acquis Group), to which Silvia Ferreri was one of the major contributors, was the Draft Common Frame of Reference (DCFR) 4 which was delivered to the European Commission in 2010 and has since been translated into a number of languages including Italian. 3 The authorsinvolved in writing the variouschapters are Silvia Ferreri, Nadia Coggiola, Paola Migliore, Cristina Poncibò, Jacqueline Visconti, Elena Grasso, Giulia Terlizzi and Domenico Francavilla. All the authors are affiliated to the University of Turin except Jacqueline Visconti (University of Genoa). 4 http: / / ec.europa.eu/ justice/ policies/ civil/ docs/ dcfr_outline_edition_en.pdf (last accessed 13 November 2013). Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse 85 The original project was a highly ambitious one which ultimately aimed at harmonizing at a European level a major area of legislation where a large body of directives and regulations had already been drafted over the years, namely private law, and in particular contract law. But the project inevitably met with resistance from certain Member States, including the UK, and the “European Code of private law seems at the moment to be left on hold” (Ferreri 2013: 29). However, one undoubted benefit has been the compilation of a Glossary where the terminology relating to contracts has been standardized and harmonized and will be of use to EU drafters. Ferreri concludes (ibid.) that efforts at consolidation and re-organisation of considerable amounts of EU legislation seem for the moment to be more promising than actual codification in the senseof hard rules tightly interrelated in a single large systematic structure. This is just one of the issues raised in this wide-ranging volume. Further topics will be analysed in the following section when placed in comparison with the ‘Good law’ initiative. 4 Discussion In Williams (2013b) my starting point when comparing popularization and plain language respectively in the realm of law and in the realm of science was that while there was a huge interest in popularizing science but relatively little interest in applying the criteria of plain language to science, the situation was the reverse in the legal sphere. Popularizing legal matters appears to arouse relatively little interest within the legal discourse community, whereas plain language has played an essential role, at least since the 1970s, and seems to be going from strength to strength. I then went on to suggest some of the reasons why popularization is a key feature in science while plain language is central to law. The thrust of my argument was that, in today’s world, there is a widely perceived need to involve growing numbers of people in science, hence popularizers of science seek to find ways of making it more attractive; on the contrary, in the legal sphere the basic need is not so much to make law more enticing but rather to provide a range of services that will be beneficial to legal practitioners and ordinary citizens in going about their daily lives. The two projects outlined above in Sections 2 and 3 - ‘Good law’ and DQC - provide further confirmation of this trend. Both explicitly endorse the adoption of plain language so that laypersons can understand - as well as access - more easily the laws and regulations that may affect them. But neither project is particularly concerned about finding ways of encouraging such persons to take a greater interest in legal matters per se. Any requests for greater involvement - as we can find, for example, in the above-mentioned plea made in the ‘Good law’ project to legal academics and judges - are of a purely ‘functional’ nature in terms of exploring ways of providing a more efficient service. Christopher Williams 86 While clearly differing in terms of scope and purpose - the former is part of a governmental body, the latter the work of a group of academics - it is possible to identify two key areas that the two projects have in common and for which they both seek practical solutions, namely how to reduce the complexity of the language of legislative texts and of the legal process in general, and how to ensure that citizens have access to the information they require in the legal sphere. It is worth noting that in a recent debate in the House of Lords (12 December 2013) on gender-neutral drafting, these criteria were highlighted, as was the influence of the ‘Good Law’ initiative, by Lord Gardiner of Kimble: I turn to the Good Law initiative, which the First Parliamentary Counsel is spearheading. This initiative, about which I have spoken before in your Lordships’ House, aims to improve drafting, reduce complexity and make the law more accessible, and I believe that these are the objectives that we all seek. The parliamentary counsel’s initial report aspires to good law, which is defined as necessary, effective, clear, accessible, coherent and, if I am allowed, I would like to add my noble and learned friend Lord Mackay’s word “lucid”. This is a sentiment that I very much hope we share across all sides of the House. With that in mind, the Government acknowledge that the use of gender-neutral drafting must result in legislation that is effective, clear and accessible. […] The Government take extremely seriously the importance of ensuring that legislation is more accessible and less complex. 5 Furthermore, it is no coincidence that Tjaden (2005) devotes the first two chapters of his study on Access to Law-related Information in Canada in the Digital Age respectively to ‘Access to law-related information as a basic right’ and ‘Complexity as a factor inhibiting access to the law in Canada’. I will now examine each of these key criteria - reducing complexity and enhancing accessibility - in turn. 4.1 Reducing complexity The ‘Good law’ initiative focuses on legislative drafting in the UK highlighting the issue of complexity in legislation purely in relation to one drafting body where only one language is used. On the contrary, DQC analyses a number of different countries some of which adopt two (e.g. Canada or Wales) or even three (e.g. Switzerland) official languages, not to mention the EU where 24 official languages are adopted. Given that both the ‘Good law’ and the DQC projects prioritize the question of how to reduce complexity it may be worth asking, therefore, whether the situation is exacerbated in multilingual, multi- 5 http: / / www.theyworkforyou.com/ lords/ ? id=2013-12-12a.1004.0 (last accessed 24 December 2013). On the question of gender-neutral drafting in general in the UK and Ireland, see Williams (2008). Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse 87 state institutions like the EU or whether, on the contrary, the quest for harmonization may help in making law-drafting a less complex process. I have argued elsewhere (Williams 2013a: 121) that, as a whole, it is easier for monolingual states or institutions to modernize their drafting style and conventions than it may be for multilingual states or institutions, and I take the example of the EU as a case in point where the legislative drafting style has changed less than it has in countries such as Australia or the UK: A plausible explanation for this more cautious approach may lie precisely in the fact that these institutions are multilingual. That is, once certain conventions have been tried and tested, and acceptable equivalents have been found across various languages, there may well be a fear that any attempt to introduce changes in one language might lead to possible misunderstandings and other unforeseeable complications when transposed into other languages. (ibid.) This is not to say that bior trilingual countries will necessarily be less inclined than monolingual countries to update their drafting policy in keeping with changing circumstances. Much also depends on the history and political culture of the state in question. Switzerland - where the civil code provides that there can be a referendum on any new legislation if enough citizens call for a vote - is a case in point, as Elena Grasso in Ferreri (2013) observes: The Swiss political culture of direct democracy certainly explains why issues of readability, clarity and access to justice are not as in demand as in other communities. As the example of the civil code demonstrated, the legibility requirement has been a fundamental feature of Swiss legislative culture, particularly when considered in comparison with the experiences of other nations. This remains a cornerstone of the Swiss political system today. (2013: 88) Inevitably, however, multilingualism in the field of legislation entails finding solutions to terminological problems: […] technical requirements must be coupled with simplicity, as provisions address both citizens and authorities. Legal terms, typical legal expressions, technical terms, intra-textual and extra-textual connections, idioms and redundancies make multilingual translation particularly difficult: the interpretation given to words may vary according to different cultural contexts. The Federal Office of Justice offers drafting training to technical experts who work on legal documents, with only German courses regularly available. The principle of direct democracy in Switzerland - where on average four referenda are held per year - undoubtedly impinges on the way its citizens perceive the law-making process, and complexity would seem to be much less of an issue than it appears to be in most other countries or institutions. The Christopher Williams 88 case of Switzerland is in stark contrast with the general public’s perception of how the EU has worked to date: The consultations on a European Constitution in 2005 dramatically highlighted the guarded attitude of European citizens toward the mechanisms of supranational legislation, which are perceived as distant, complex, and unclear; lack of democratic transparency is a frequent complaint. This reaction has led to intensified efforts to reach out to the public. (Ferreri 2013: 33-34) Heaton (2013: 6-8) outlines a number of reasons why the phenomenon of complexity in the law-making process has become increasingly problematic in the UK over the years. These include a) the ever-increasing volume of laws on the statutory books; b) the fact that many laws are becoming increasingly detailed, even if they are written in a more modern drafting style; c) the impact of EU obligations. The latter point includes the phenomenon of ‘gold-plating’ which occurs when a Member State exceeds the minimum requirements when transposing an EU law into their national law, imposing additional cost, burdens or restrictions, usually on business: A 2003 British Chamber of Commerce study attempting to assess the incidence of gold plating calculated that: - on average, the UK provides 2.6 implementing documents per EU Directive, compared with 1 in Germany and 0.8 in Portugal. - in 2003 there was an average “elaboration ratio” for the UK of 330%. In an extreme example, Directive 2002/ 42/ EC consisted of 1,167 words in its original English text but resulted in 27,000 words of implementing regulation in the UK (Heaton 2013: 8). Not only does this constant production of implementing documents contribute to the increase in volume of legislation in the UK, it also reinforces the conviction of many British politicians and broad sections of the general public that the EU constitutes more of a problem than a solution, an unwelcome complication and interference into the workings of a sovereign state by ‘the bureaucrats of Brussels’. Moreover, the need to find a solution to the complexity of legislation also stems from the fact that certain recent laws drafted in Westminster, such as the Companies Act 2009, continue to display some of the features that have plagued legislative drafting for decades, as Mark Lucas points out in an article of 12 July 2013 in Solicitors Journal: Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse 89 One only has to look at the new Companies Act, enacted as recently as 2009 long after the concept of plain English and the importance of accessibility were widely accepted, for an example of what can go wrong. It was then the longest act in British parliamentary history with 1,300 sections, covering nearly 700 pages and containing 16 schedules - the list of contents alone was 59 pages long. 6 Before going on to analyse the question of accessibility, it is worth mentioning that in Italy, after several years of relative inactivity, the DipartimentodellaFunzionePubblica, headed by GianpieroD’Alia, Minister for the Public Administration and Simplification, is once again foregrounding the need for the ‘semplificazione’ of bureaucratic procedures in a campaign aimed at citizens in general and as a cost-saving and time-saving incentive to businesses. 7 This would appear to mark a return to the Department’s dynamism of the early 1990s which culminated in the so-called ‘ProgettoChiaro! ’ (see Williams 2005). 4.2 Increasing accessibility Access to information is the cornerstone to good governance, meaningful participation, and increasing transparency, and is recognized as a fundamental human right. (The Carter Center) 8 The question of how to enable citizens to identify their needs and how to gain access to the services and documentation that they require as swiftly as possible is clearly of fundamental importance not only to the two projects examined here but also to the Plain language movement in general. As I pointed out in Williams (2013b), accessibility is also a key priority for those involved in other spheres of popularization such as science, even if the underlying reasons for pressing for greater accessibility may be rather different. Popularizers of science - unlike popularizers of law - may be motivated, for example, to find ways of involving greater numbers of people in computer science as part of their school education, which entails making topics more accessible. Hence one comes across articles such as ‘Increasing accessibility to computer science education across the U.S.’ as the headline in the National Science Foundation 6 http: / / www.solicitorsjournal.com/ commercial/ contract/ update-contract-can-goodlaw-initiative-make-law-more-accessible (last accessed 27 December 2013). 7 http: / / www.funzionepubblica.gov.it/ si/ semplifica-italia/ introduzione_standard.aspx (last accessed 27 December 2013).GianpieroD’Alia was replaced by Marianna Madia in February 2014. 8 http: / / www.cartercenter.org/ peace/ americas/ information.html (last accessed 24 December 2013). Christopher Williams 90 website 9 which in turn contains links to initiatives such as ‘The Beauty and Joy of Computing’ run by University of California, Berkeley. 10 Significantly, googling the string ‘beauty and joy of law’ produced zero results, whereas ‘beauty and joy of science’ produced 16,000 results and ‘beauty and joy of computing’ produced 142,000, mostly related to the UC Berkeley initiative. 11 At the same time, there is clearly a large degree of overlap in terms of the need for greater accessibility to information whether it be in the realm of science or in the realm of law. Two underlying reasons for this prioritization of accessibility can be identified as 1) the ongoing effects of the digital revolution and of the Internet; 2) an ever-growing sense that a truly democratic society necessarily entails inclusion for all people many of whom, for various reasons, may have been treated - or have perceived themselves - as ‘outsiders’ in the past. The two points are, of course, strictly interconnected. John Sheridan, who has been closely involved in the ‘Good Law’ initiative and is responsible for the legislation.gov.uk website, frames the issue as follows: The web has transformed public access to legislation. The law is no longer just in the hands of those with access to a professional library. Today, you just do a Google search and you are a couple of clicks away from reading the text of a statute. Millions of people do just that every month. They are the users of legislation.gov.uk. The challenge now is to ensure the needs of this new audience are properly understood and addressed, to help users of the statute book to find their feet, so they have a fair chance of comprehending the legislation they are reading. […] We discovered that legislation.gov.uk is mostly used by people at work and for work purposes. The majority of users are not lawyers and therefore lack access to one of the commercial subscription services. They are drawn from a much wider group of people who need to know, cite or use legislation as part of their job. For example, imaginesomeone in the human resources department of a mid-size company, trying to understand theimpact of the Pensions Act 2011 on the business. Of course they will read the guidance, but they also want to check the text of the legislation itself. That’s a typical legislation.gov.uk user. 12 With the website receiving over 2 million visitors a month, much is being done to cater for the needs of non-experts who now constitute the majority of users. Despite the “very unusual content” 13 constituted by the complexity of 9 http: / / www.nsf.gov/ news/ news_summ.jsp? cntn_id=129882 (last accessed 24 December 2013). 10 http: / / inst.eecs.berkeley.edu/ ~cs10/ fa13/ (last accessed 24 December 2013). 11 This comparison was carried out on 24 December 2013. 12 http: / / www.scl.org/ site.aspx? i=ed34527 (last accessed 25 December 2013). 13 https: / / www.gov.uk/ government/ publications/ government-digital-strategy/ action-11case-study-build-government-as-a-platform (last accessed 27 December 2013). Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse 91 the legislative process - which may entail cross-referencing and amending previous legislation - and the way legislation has been published to date, the National Archives team are well on the way to creating a fully updated copy of the statute book, a mammoth task in terms of effort and resources. Access to law is also of crucial importance in DQC as is outlined in the Introduction (Ferreri 2013): Generally speaking, ‘access to law’ may be considered as a crucial aspect of the functioning of democratic systems, and involves: 1. access to information; 2. access to rights and justice; 3. democratic participation in public discourse; 4. social inclusion. (Ferreri 2013: 5) The question of accessibility is viewed from a historical perspective, and we are informed that, unlike the present day where (as has been mentioned above) cross-referencing and amendments contribute to making a legislative text particularly arduous to decipher and contextualize, at the time of the Byzantine Empire Justinian had an effective solution for dealing with the complexity of legislation which is clearly no longer available to today’s drafters: the codification by Justinian in the Corpus juriscivilis(533 A.D.) was aimed at rendering clear and accessible the existing elaboration of rules by previous authors and legislativeprovisions passed over a long period of time. As often mentioned in manuals of Roman law, Justinian wanted to establish a certain and definite body of reference for decisions and he prohibited further elaboration of what had been collected in his codification, forbidding ‘commentaries’ that would cause confusion or further uncertainty. (Ferreri 2013: 7) Moving forward to more recent times, Ferreri (ibid.: 34) observes that the European Union’s first major attempt to tackle the question of access to law dates back to 1993: The European Council of Ministers’ Resolution of 8 June 1993 on the quality of drafting of Community legislation states that the general objective of making Community legislation more accessible should be pursued, by making systematic use of consolidation, and by implementing a precise set of criteria against which Council texts should be checked while they are being drafted. (Ferreri 2013: 34) A comparison of the issue of access to law on a national level is made in the various sections dealing with national legislative drafting policy. For example, Ferreri highlights the fact that in France the so-called ‘Toubon law’ of 1994 recognises the right of French citizens to access legal texts, the right of employees to access all aspects of their employment contracts and the Christopher Williams 92 right of consumers to receive useful information on products, or in manuals and warranties. (Ferreri 2013: 72) This is coupled with other legislation-related initiatives such as ‘Juriscope’ (www.juriscope.org) set up in 1992 to facilitate access to foreign law and disseminate French law abroad (ibid.: 76) and ‘Legifrance’ (http: / / www.legifrance.gouv.fr/ ) which contains not only French laws but also a number of European Union laws and international treaties and conventions. 5 Conclusions This brief outline of the two recent initiatives in the field of legal drafting, then, would seem to confirm the view I expressed in Williams (2013b), namely, that plain language is pivotal to the debate about how to reform legal language whereas popularization is of only marginal importance. According to the online Merriam-Webster dictionary, 14 the verb ‘to popularize’ means 1) to cause (something) to be liked, enjoyed, accepted, or done by many people: to make (something) popular; 2) to make (something that is difficult or complicated) simpler and easier to understand for the average person. Clearly, this second meaning is perfectly in line with the aims of the Plain language movement. But as I have argued in Williams (2013b) it is the first meaning that tends to prevail when we talk about popularization, namely the persuasive element in finding ways of making something appealing or enjoyable as well as being easier to understand. Like most other law-related plain language initiatives, ‘Good law’ and DQC are concerned with finding ways of providing an efficient service in the legislative sphere to the widest number of people - be they practitioners or laypersons - so that they can easily access the information they need and know what they have to do with that information. In this regard plain language plays a pivotal role “in preserving and enhancing the democratic process” (Ferreri 2013: 5). The five adjectives adopted on the opening page of the ‘Good law’ website 15 (and reported in the speech by Lord Gardiner of Kimble in Section 4 of this paper) to describe the ideal type of good law experienced by users are enlightening in this regard: The Office of the Parliamentary Counsel (OPC) would like the user to experience good law - law that is: - necessary - clear - coherent 14 http: / / www.merriam-webster.com/ dictionary/ popularize (last accessed 27 December 2013). 15 https: / / www.gov.uk/ good-law (last accessed 28 December 2013). Further Reflections on Popularization and Plain Language in Legal Discourse 93 - effective - accessible The explicit request made on the website for involvement (“Get involved”) in the ‘Good law’ project is - as has been outlined earlier in this paper - in order to find ways of further improving the service being offered to citizens. The digital revolution undoubtedly provides new opportunities for allowing citizens to access the sort of information they need and to make their voices heard. The two initiatives discussed in this paper - ‘Good law’ and DQC - are further proof that, at least within the sphere of legislative drafting (the situation in the field of contracts is rather different: see Williams 2010), the criteria of clarity and plain language are becoming ever more central to the legal drafting process. References Bowcott, O. (2013). ‘Complexity of parliamentary legislation “undermining the rule of law”’. The Guardian 16 April 2013. Also available online at http: / / www.theguardian.com/ law/ 2013/ apr/ 16/ parliamentary-legislation-toocomplex-report (last accessed 1 November 2013). Ferreri, S. (coord.) (2013). Document Quality Control in Public Administrations and International Organisations in Studies on Translation and Multilingualism 2/ 2013. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Also available online at http: / / ec.europa.eu/ dgs/ translation/ publications/ studies/ document_ quality_control_en.pdf (last accessed 1 November 2013). Heaton, R. (2013). ‘When laws become too complex’. Office of the Parliamentary Counsel Cabinet. Cabinet Office: London. Available online at https: / / www.gov.uk/ government/ uploads/ system/ uploads/ attachment_data/ fil e/ 187015/ GoodLaw_report_8April_AP.pdf (last accessed 1 November 2013). Kermas, S. and Christiansen, T. (eds) (2013). The Popularization of Specialized Discourse and Knowledge Across Communities and Cultures. Bari: Edipuglia. Office of the Parliamentary Counsel 2013. ‘Join the good law conversation’, 16 April 2013. Available online at https: / / www.gov.uk/ government/ news/ jointhe-good-law-conversation (last accessed 1 November 2013). Tjaden, T. J. (2005). Access to Law-Related Information in Canada in the Digital Age. Thesis submitted at the Faculty of Law, University of Toronto. Available at: http: / / www.legalresearchandwriting.ca/ images/ TedTjadenLLMThesis.pdf (last accessed 27 December 2013). Williams, C. (2005). ProgettoChiaro! and the Plain Language Movement in Italy. Clarity 53: 30-32. Williams, C. (2008). The end of the ‘masculine rule’? Gender-neutral legislative drafting in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Statute Law Review 29: 139-153. Williams, C. (2010). Functional or dysfunctional? The language of business contracts in English. RassegnaItaliana di LinguisticaApplicata 3: 217-227. Christopher Williams 94 Williams, C. (2013a). Is legal English ‘going European’? The case of the simple present. Canadian Journal of Linguistics 58/ 1: 105-126. Williams, C. (2013b).‘The “popularization of law” and “law and Plain language”: are they two separate issues? ’ In Kermas, S. and Christiansen, T. (eds), The Popularization of Specialized Discourse and Knowledge Across Communities and Cultures. Bari: Edipuglia: 33-52. Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial Patrizia Anesa (University of Bergamo, Italy) 1 Introduction Adaptation to new developments in science and technology has become crucial in the conduction of modern trials. In particular, it is generally assumed that the acquisition of scientific evidence is essential for the sound development of trials, especially of a criminal nature. Therefore, the collection, analysis, presentation and discussion of scientific evidence are fundamental steps in the process aiming at carrying out justice. Science, and the technology that it has spawned, not only permeate the courtroom but also contribute to defining its characteristics and developments. In jury trials, verdicts are often based on the level of reliability that jurors attribute to certain scientific evidence and, in particular, on the credibility that they assign to those presenting and framing it. Indeed, it is on the perception of trustworthiness that decisions are often based and this process includes all participants involved in a trial, such as the parties, the attorneys and the witnesses. The acceptance of scientific evidence on the part of the jurors often derives from the credibility that the experts have gained, and, therefore, expert witnesses are subject to constant evaluation and judgment. It is plausible to assume that laypeople inevitably encounter difficulties in understanding and interpreting highly technical information which is ascribed to specific areas of expertise that the jurors are unlikely to be familiar with (be it entomology, chemistry, biology, etc.). In order to gain credibility, experts have to reach a balance between clarity and accuracy, simplicity and competence. Indeed, on the one hand, they want to be perceived as facilitators of understanding, who are willing to share their knowledge with others without hiding anything from them. On the other hand, the acceptability of their message depends on the affirmation of their competence and their professionalism Consequently, communication between experts and non-experts often involves strategies of accommodation and process that are associated with different forms of popularization. This paper analyses some of the linguistic, discursive and epistemic features on which the discussion and presentation of scientific evidence are based, focusing in particular on processes of popularization of science in expert witness examination. It is not the aim of this paper to present some general features of popularization as a phenomenon, given its Patrizia Anesa 96 multifaceted nature, but rather to focus on its peculiarities in a specific context of analysis, such as a criminal jury trial within the Californian jurisdiction. This chapter is divided into two main sections: the first discusses the concept of popularization with particular reference to the courtroom setting and, more specifically, the witness examination phase. The analytical section, instead, focuses on authentic excerpts taken from the California vs Westerfield trial and investigates the emergence of popularization strategies with particular attention being devoted to the use of explanatory devices on the part of both expert witnesses and legal professionals. 2 Defining popularization The concept of popularization, and in particular that of the popularization of science, is complex and multifaceted (see inter alia Gregory & Miller 1998, Stocklmayer 2001, Calsamiglia 2003). In general terms, the popularization of science may occur in different contexts and is often regarded as the presentation and description of science outside the scientific community, generally through media forms such as the press or TV, and, by and large, it is aimed at a general audience. More specifically, following Calsamiglia and van Dijk (2004: 371), we can intend popularization to mean “a social process consisting of a large class of discursive-semiotic practices, involving many types of mass media, books, the Internet, exhibitions and other genres of communicative events, aiming to communicate lay versions of scientific knowledge, as well as opinions and ideologies of scholars, among the public at large”. However, the interpretation of popularization adopted here is also intended as potentially including limited and specific groups of participants. Popularization in its wide meaning is aimed at the public at large, but Calsamiglia and van Dijk rightly point out that different “genres of communicative events” may be involved. Moreover, we may argue that no communicative event may be excluded on a priori grounds. 2.1 Popularization in the courtroom This paper focuses on the processes of communicating science in the courtroom, where science is described and explained to laypeople by different types of experts within the specific constraints of legal proceedings. In the case analyzed here, we may talk about a localized, specifically targeted and hybridized form of popularization. Indeed, popularization is here observed within a specific communicative event which assumes localized contours; localization is not here seen a mere intercultural adaptation, but also as an interpersonal phenomenon. Popularization is often addressed to the general public and adopts communicative strategies which are aimed at reaching a vast variety of receivers, who may display different personal and cultural characteristics. It is not excludible that Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial 97 the process may address more specific target groups, but, as a tendency, such groups are not intended as highly restricted or restrictive categories. We may assert that popularization is specifically targeted in the case under investigation because in the communicative context of a jury trial the main targeted audience is the jury, which represents a specific group of individuals, whose details (be they biographical, educational, occupational, etc.) are often known to some of the other participants, such as the attorneys. We can affirm that we are dealing with a hybridized form of popularization in that the communication of science in court is based on the hybridization between technical-scientific concepts and their lay versions. In particular, the dynamics of expert witness examination determine a tension between technical precision and constant simplification. Moreover, popularization has been defined as “writing that makes new or complex research and ideas accessible to non-specialists” (Luey 2010: 5), but it should be noted that popularization can be carried out through different modes, such as written, oral or visual. By adopting an educational perspective, it can be especially argued that writing tends to assume a dominant role in popularization processes, but different contexts of production make use of considerably different forms, so that hybridization can also be observed in terms of modality. For instance, in a jury trial, as will be shown, science is explained to laypeople through a combination of considerably different tools, such as videos, pictures, graphs, oral narration, etc., and a successful combination of modes is crucial in order to successfully convey an intended message to the target audience, namely the jurors. Indeed, the understanding of scientific concepts is often based on visualization processes, and one of the objectives of the attorney is to enhance the visualization of such concepts in order to make them more easily understandable and acceptable for the jury. More specifically, visualization is linked to the external representations presented during the trial, not only through pictures or graphs, but also through video and audio material. The mental visualization of such concepts is often defined as internal representation (Gilbert et al. 2008: 4, cf. Tufte 1983, Reisberg 1997). If we consider this differentiation between internal and external representation, we should also point out that the two processes are inevitably interdependent and interconnected. Moreover, as Gilbert et al. point out, visualized internal representations may be “amalgamated / recombined to form a novel internal representation that is capable of external expression” (Gilbert et al. 2008: 4-5). 2.2 Popularization as re-contextualization As Calsamiglia and van Dijk (2004) stress, popularization is not intended as a process of reformulation or paraphrasing but as a more complex recontextualization. In this perspective, the conceptualization of context should also take into account the idea of context models, through which texts, co-texts 98 and so ly subj tions in degree defined Figure social s ticipan text is f tion of simplif In oth same c ization Durant that of popula Mo tween d In part sume a particip in the knowle jurors cial situation ective as the n episodic m of relativity d by the parti Figure 1 1 attempts t situation for t nts’ context m fundamental f scientific k fied but is bo er words, a constructs a s n of the dynam ti & Goodwi f discourse, in arization of di oreover, the c different cate - Setting (Tim - Events - Participant - Actions - Cognition. ticular, if we a variety of pants, such a communicat edge and thei come into th s are perceive y are “embed memory” (van given that w icipants them Context mod to show the i the creation o models (van D for the conc knowledge in rn with a spe certain repre pecific contex mics existing n 1992, van ntended as la iscourse. concept of co egories (cf. va me, Location, C ts (and their var consider the social, profe as scientific e ive process w ir externaliza he trial with ed and define dded in a set n Dijk 2009: 2 what is relevan mselves (van D dels. interconnecte of contexts, w Dijk 1977, 200 ceptualization n that such s ecific context, esentation of xt. 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For exam out certain sc zia Anesa nherentresentay a high uation is text and the parof conularizanot only cernible. d at the ceptualion (see ble from y that of tion bethey as- Different ake part thesized mple, the cientific Explaini issues, though written torneys be the j a certa what t lack of titions 2.3 C Knowl are sha & van D knowle circum that in es”. De intrins the int that em ng Science: The but the pos h jurors are to n form, such s build their jurors’ know ain level of k hey have acq f specific know (see section 3 Co-construct edge is here ared by a cert Dijk 2004). D edge shared w mstantial know evitably conc espite the lev ically constru terconnectedn merge in expe Fig e Popularization ssibility they o some exten practice is re examination ledge of the i knowledge wh quired prepa wledge and a 3.1). tion of knowl intended as t tain epistemi Different type within a cultu wledge. Popu cerns the pop vel of discipli ucted upon (a ness of differ ert testimony: gure 2 Interco n of Scientific E have to exte nt allowed to elatively rare strategy on t issue. Moreov hich may be aring the case ask for clarific wledge in witn the culturally ic community es of knowled ure (van Dijk ularization of pularization o inary speciali and in turn c rent (potentia : onnected “kno Evidence in a Ju ernalize it is submit quest , see Anesa 2 the basis of w ver, attorneys considerably e. Indeed, th cations, refor ness examina y-specific not y (see van Di dge may refer & Kintsch 19 f knowledge i of intertwined ization, any a onstructs) oth ally infinite) owledges”. ry Trial very limited tions to the c 2012). Theref what they pres s constantly m y less extensiv ey often exte mulations an ation? ions and beli jk 2003, Cals to the more a 983) or more s a complex d sets of “kno area of knowl hers. Figure 2 types of kno 99 d (even court in fore, atsume to manifest ve than ernalize nd repeiefs that samiglia abstract specific process owledgwledge is 2 shows owledge Patrizia Anesa 100 The testimony offered by an expert, even if in reference to a highly specialized area of a discipline, cannot be interpreted in isolation from other related types of knowledge. This is not to simply say that different types of knowledge constantly draw on each other, but that effective communication of certain scientific notions cannot disregard other related areas of knowledge that may emerge. For instance, showing a high level of specialization and competency in the field of entomology may certainly enhance the credibility of the witness, but his ability to also demonstrate an appropriate knowledge of the law while not disregarding common knowledge may also contribute to the jurors’ acceptance of his testimony. A peculiar aspect of popularization within the specific communicative event to be analysed is related to the pragmatic function of discourse. Any kind of communication process entails different pragmatic functions, which are often inter-related, and expert testimony is no exception. By and large, it may be argued that popularization has a predominantly informative function, but in witness examination such a function is inextricably linked to persuasive and argumentative purposes. Moreover, especially in the case of witnesses appointed by the party, the speaker may be predominantly driven by the need to convince their audience of the validity of their thesis, even at the expense of objectivity. As witness examination inevitably includes the co-participation of attorneys and witnesses, the persuasive purpose of the event is often predominant in that the attorney aims to frame the examination in such a way as to be in line with his/ her theory of the case. As will be shown, popularization of science during expert witness examination in court is not seen as a monologic process, where experts explain scientific evidence to laypeople. Their speech is often guided, interrupted, and integrated by the attorneys, who play a fundamental role in the way scientific evidence is presented and perceived. Therefore, popularization in witness examination is therefore also co-constructed at a dual level: it is constructed by different agents, such as expert witnesses and attorneys, who cooperate in the communication of certain concepts (where cooperation does not necessarily mean that a convergence of intentions is displayed, but that the process is based on the contribution of different participants); moreover, the coconstruction of knowledge (see Kastberg & Ditlevsen 2010) can also be observed in the jurors, who are often seen as passive spectators, but they inevitably play an active part in perceiving and constructing their own knowledge of the case. The peculiarity of the specific form of popularization that takes place in witness examination is given by the procedural rules to be followed and in particular by the fact that the model of narration is based on the questionanswer pattern. The expert can present their information regarding only specific points touched upon by the attorney. Attorneys may therefore be seen as communication gatekeepers in that they play a major role in deciding what Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial 101 will be presented in court. A different gatekeeping role is played by the judge, who has to decide what is ultimately admissible. The jurors are generally considered the main audience of the testimony. The examination is presented to them, so that they can take it into account in the process of reaching a verdict. However, the experts’ speech is also planned and guided so as to address the court and the other receivers such as people in the public gallery, as their reaction may influence the juror’s perception. Moreover, in a televised trial the concept of receiver may be seen as to include all the spectators who watched the event. Even without entering the dynamics of televised trials and how media may influence the developments of trials, it is clear that this is a factor that complexifies the communicative processes taking place. The scientific expert has to follow a series of conventions, which are not only given by the constraints imposed by the procedural rules, but also by the conventions of the scientific community itself, which inevitably determine the structure and texture of scientific texts (Hatim & Mason 1997: 97). Social acceptability within a community of practice of specialized professional categories (e.g. entomologists) is inevitably determined by a range of criteria, such as scientific validity, and respect of the discursive conventions of scientific prose that are generally accepted within that specific community. Social acceptability on the part of a lay audience may derive from different criteria, such as the accessibility of the language. Figure 3 attempts to show how the appropriate combination of apparently divergent aspects such as simplicity and technicality in the explanation of scientific concepts may enhance acceptability on the part of the jurors. Figure 3 The concept of acceptability. Patrizia Anesa 102 Acceptability on the part of the jury depends on the level of credibility assigned to the participants involved. In particular, when dealing with scientific concepts, jurors often base their decisions on what emerges in expert witness examination. A high level of technicality is necessary in order to present evidence within the formal and procedural constraints of a specific trial. Moreover, it allows the speaker to invest his words with scientific validity and be perceived as competent and professional. At the same time, as will be shown, lexical and syntactic simplicity are generally associated with clarity and transparency, and this type of style is often considered more easily understandable and, consequently, acceptable. 3 Analysis The criminal trial analysed in this chapter is California vs Westerfield (see Anesa 2012 for a comprehensive analysis), which took place in 2002. Following the death of a seven-year-old girl, Danielle van Dam, David Westerfield was charged with murder, kidnapping and possession of child pornography. At the end of the trial he was convicted and sentenced to death and he is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison. The analysis is based on the transcription of some passages of the recorded expert witness examination. The entire trial was televised, but for the purposes of this work, only a few passages related to scientific experts will be presented. I have argued elsewhere (Anesa & Kastberg 2012, Anesa 2012) that a trial is a highly complex communicative event which consists of a series of subevents. This analysis focuses principally on the expert witness examination phase, even though references to other phases of the trial are also occasionally made for clarifying purposes. The main participants involved in the expert examination phase are the attorneys and the experts called to the bar. In this specific case the attorneys are: For the People of California: Jeff B. Dusek; George W. Clarke For the defendant: Steven E. Feldman; Robert E. Joyce; Laura G. Schaefer. It should be noted that another crucial participant is the judge (William Mudd) because from a communicative point of view he assumes a gatekeeping function. Moreover, the communication process involves the jurors who cannot be considered simply as passive spectators, given the crucial decisional role they are attributed. By definition, the jury should be completely impartial and be representative of society as a whole. 1 Moreover, they are supposed to construct their knowledge about the case exclusively based on the evidence presented to them during the trial. However, as Mauet notes, they inevitably 1 The description of the jury selection process would go beyond the scope of this paper, but for a deeper analysis see Kovera, Dickinson and Cutler 2002, and Lieberman and Sales 2006 on scientific jury selection. See also Fukurai 1999 and Hastie 1991 for a more critical approach. Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial 103 “also bring with them their personal experiences, deep-seated beliefs, and attitudes about life and how things work in the real world” (Mauet 2009: 25). 3.1 Emerging popularization strategies: the question-answer pattern One of the disciplines that played a crucial role in the Westerfield trial was certainly entomology, and forensic entomology entered a vast number of US households during the trial. In particular, the assessment of the victim’s time of death was extremely controversial. There was considerable conflict over the interpretation of the methods and theories applied and of the data presented by different forensic entomologists. The main experts examined were: Dr. David Faulkner, Dr. Neal Haskell, Dr. M. Lee Goff, and Dr. Robert D. Hall 2 . Some of the popularization strategies emerging in witness examination will now be described, focusing on the ones realized verbally. We will look in particular at passages taken from Dr. Faulkner’s and Dr. Haskell’s testimonies. As has been mentioned, expert witness examination is a complex event where different participants assume different participant roles, and the speaker’s pragmatic intentions are varied. The purpose of an expert’s words may be to inform and instruct the listeners, to affirm their own ideology and beliefs, to criticize another expert’s opinion, etc. Conversely, the apparent role assumed by an attorney is often that of a lay listener that needs further clarification, and the purpose of this attitude is to clarify certain concepts for the audience and to achieve perceived similarity. In other words, the attorney aims to enhance in-group mechanisms and to be perceived as someone who is not trying to hide anything from the jurors by using convoluted patterns and inaccessible terminology. The following excerpt focuses on David Faulkner’s examination, and the forensic entomologist testifies about the work that was carried out on Danielle’s body. This passage emblematically illustrates the communicative question-answer pattern adopted in expert witness examination. A: (David Faulkner): Yes. Entomological Society of America. And also the Lepidopterist society […] Q: (Steven Feldman): You used the word lepidopterist. What is that, please? A: Someone who works on butterflies and moths. […] A: The larva will grow and develop. It reaches a certain size, and it molts. And then it starts -- Q: I’m sorry. Molts. I don’t understand the term, please. A: Molting just means it sheds its skin. It has to get out of that, otherwise it would be constricted in that particular size. 2 Faulker, the local forensic entomologist, was hired by the defense. Haskell and Hall were also called by the defense. Instead, Goff testified for the prosecution. Patrizia Anesa 104 […] A: When that maximum size has been reached for that larva of that species, then it will oftentimes move away from the host and look for a place to pupate. That we refer to -- Q: Sir, I’m sorry. Pupate. A: That we refer to as the post-feeding or pre-pupal stage. So you have the egg, and then you have these three different parts of the larval development. And then you have this other part where they move away and they pupate. Pupation is where in a sense a maggot shrinks up a bit. The cuticle is chitinized; it hardens up; it stiffens. It’s a protective layer. And then over time that will darken. So it may be very whitish or cream-colored initially, and eventually it may be dark brown or black, sometimes reddish. Again depending on the species. And once they get to this point, they will stay in that particular stage until the adult insect hatches out, mating will occur, and the cycle will start over again. Q: A couple of -actually several terms you used. I’m not sure because you’re moving pretty quick. You used the term chitinized. What does that mean? A: Chitinized just means that the cuticle of insects is chitin. Q: Just a minute. I’m sorry. Should have started from reverse. When you say the cuticle of an insect, what is the cuticle of an insect? A: I guess in comparison would probably just be the skin. Q: Okay. A: So it’s like your fingernail. It’s substance that’s pretty much specialized and uses the external, the outside covering of insects. Q: So then you just told us the cuticle was chitinized. Can you- A: Chitin. It can be very hardened at certain times in development, particularly during the pupal stage. Q: You just told me it’s made of chitin, but I don’t know what chitin is. A: Chitin is the substance that fingernails are made out of. In this case the attorney uses communicative strategies which may lead to a particular form of convergence, not towards his direct interlocutor (the witness), but towards his target audience (the jurors). Therefore, this form of convergence is indirect and based on the pre-defined characteristics that the attorney assumes to be displayed by the jurors. Indeed, group membership is a salient issue. The attorney asks questions regarding terms and concepts that the jurors may find intricate in order to accentuate his in-group similarities with the jurors and, and at the same time, to enhance his role as a facilitator of understanding. This is often done by asking explicitly for definitions (You used the word lepidopterist. What is that, please? ). The same objective may be reached by showing difficulty in understanding the expert’s words (I’m sorry. Molts. I don’t understand the term, please; You just told me it’s made of chitin, Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial 105 but I don’t know what chitin is). Moreover, in some cases, the attorney simply needs to mention the complex word in order to obtain some clarifications (Sir, I’m sorry. Pupate.) Attorneys try to enhance a converge towards their target, not in terms of speech style, but in terms of knowledge pre-requisites in order to be perceived more similar to the jury, psychologically, attitudinally and behaviourally. These strategies are in line with well-known communicative, social and psychological models, such as the similarity-attraction paradigm (Byrne 1971), social categorization theory (Turner 1987), and attitude engagement theory (Harrison, Newman & Roth 2006). 3.2 Explanatory devices Popularization of scientific knowledge in witness examination may assume considerably different forms. It is often associated with the explanation and exposition of scientific notions, concepts, terminology, ideas and principles to an audience that is, by definition, a lay audience who should represent the society as a whole. In particular, explanation (cf. Calsamiglia & van Dijk 2004) may be based on strategies such as: a) Denominations b) Descriptions c) Paraphrasing d) Reformulation e) Repetition Figures of speech, especially of analogical nature (such as similes and metaphors) a) Contrasts b) Personification c) Exemplifications d) Narration Sections 3.2.1 and 3.2.2 will illustrate how some of these rhetorical tools may be employed. 3.2.1 Defining, describing and paraphrasing The popularization of scientific terms and concepts often makes use of explanatory tools such as definitions and descriptions. Even though the distinction between the two is not always clear cut, it may be argued that definitions tend to focus on the meaning of (presumably) unknown words, whereas descriptions focus on the explanation of unknown things (Calsamiglia & van Dijk 2004). Patrizia Anesa 106 Explanatory tools: Explain: Focus on: Definitions Unknown words Word meaning Descriptions Unknown things World knowledge Table 1 Definitions and descriptions (adapted from Calsamiglia & van Dijk 2004). Defining the specific meaning attributed to a term is fundamental within scientific discourse and especially in the context of a trial, where words become official records, which are also accessible by the jurors on request. For instance, in the following passage the term ‘entomologist’ is clearly defined: Q (Feldman): What is an entomologist? A (Faulkner): Entomologist is someone who studies insects and related invertebrates. This is immediately followed by a more specific definition of the expression ‘forensic entomologist’: Q (Feldman): And what is a forensic entomologist? A (Faulkner): One who applies that sort of research and information to the criminal justice system. These examples show that definitions often make use of hypernyms and superordinate nouns or pronouns (e.g. someone, one, a person) accompanied by a relative clause which specifies some of their characteristics. A common explanatory device in witness examination is the use of reformulations and paraphrases: Q (Feldman): What are those families of flies called? A (Faulkner): One of the families would be in -would include things like house flies. And these are the muscids, which are not that common on animal remains, but are found from time to time. The second group are what we call sarcophagies. And the sarcophages are flesh flies. And in the southwestern United States and particularly during the warmer times of the year, they are pretty important. The most important group, though, tend to be what we call the calliphora flies, which are your blow flies and bottle flies, which are very, very common, both in urban settings and in rural situations. Definitional reformulations often make use of similar terms displaying different levels of formality. They are often juxtaposed in order to allow a lay audience to understand what is being explained, without disregarding the necessary lexical precision. Parenthetical reformulation where the scientific term is Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial 107 followed by an ordinary one (Callifora flies, which are your blow flies and bottle flies, […]) are fundamental for establishing a connection between a new concept and a familiar experiential one (Ciapuscio 2003). Such links between the specialized realm and everyday human life, consequently, enhance comprehensibility. Moreover, in later stages the expert adopts exclusively the more accessible terms, instead of the scientific ones (certain forensically important insects, particularly the blow flies and bottle flies). The use of synonymic or nearly synonymic expressions is also common in explanatory situations. An illustration is found in example 1 (The cuticle is chitinized; it hardens up; it stiffens), where the expert uses a series of similar terms to present the same concept. In science, terms tend to be highly monoreferential, in that their replacement with other terms may harm their technical precision. However, in this case, given the lack of specialization on the part of the jurors, it is important to offer a more heterogeneous array of terms that the jurors may select from. Specific terminology of foreign (especially of Latin) origin is common in scientific discourse, and it is therefore inevitably introduced by the scientific expert: A (Faulkner): There’s -in a collection there are certain insects that are more valuable in being able to estimate a time when the insects were associated with the remains which oftentimes can be directly related to the P.M.I. Or post-mortem interval. Q (Feldman): We are using the term post-mortem interval, but what that means to communicate is time of death, is that right? A: Ultimately, yes, the time of death. In this case Faulkner uses the acronym P.M.I., which would not be immediately understood by someone who does not use this acronym on a regular basis. Therefore, he accompanies the acronym with the expression ‘postmortem interval’ in order to be clear. The attorney then focuses on the function of this concept as an indicator of the time of death, and the expert confirms such a function. However, within the strict boundaries of the law, the use of inappropriate terminology may lead to an objection: Q (Feldman): So if I’m understanding you correctly, it’s your professional opinion, based on your entomologic research, experience, your training, your education, your publications, your memberships, that based on what the eggs, what the bugs are telling you, time of death is between the 16th and the 18th, is that right? Mr. Dusek: objection. Misstates the evidence. The court: it does. Rephrase the question. Patrizia Anesa 108 Q (Feldman): is it the case, based on all of your training and experience, that it’s your opinion that based upon your entomologic findings that time of death could have been between the 16th and 18th of February? Mr. Dusek: objection. Misstates the evidence for time of death. The court: you keep using the term time of death. Use a different terminology, and I will allow the question. Q (Feldam): Is it your conclusion that the post-mortem interval could have been between the 16th and the 18th? A: yes. This example clearly shows that legal and scientific terminology cannot be changed, and it should be remembered that a sustained objection may have devastating effects on the credibility of the attorney once it is sustained (see Lubet 2004: 260-306). In the field of law, where words are recorded and become official transcripts on which legal decisions are based, the use of the appropriate terms clearly plays a crucial role. It is in the interest of lawyers and, arguably, witnesses to use terminology that is most suitable to support one’s theory about the case, but at the same time, they have to move within the legal and procedural boundaries of the court. 3.2.2 Figurative language Figurative language and analogies with personal experiences (e.g. Feigenson 2000) are often used in court to explain specialized legal concepts in order to facilitate comprehension, but without changing their original meaning. For instance, Aron et al. cite a case where the difference between ‘simple negligence’ and ‘gross negligence’ was described as follows: “Simple negligence occurs when you are eating a plate of beans and you spill a bean on your tie. When you spill a whole knifeful of beans on your tie, that’s gross negligence” (Aron et al.1996: 12.29). Indeed, the creation of connections between different domains may enhance understanding and, at the same time, function as an attention getter. It is widely accepted that metaphors have a cognitive basis (see Lakoff and Johnson’s 1980 seminal work) which allows us to reconceptualize knowledge in familiar, personal, and concrete terms. Consequently, analogical reasoning may be effectively used to explain scientific concepts in witness examination. In the case analyzed here, the expert uses figurative language to describe some specific anatomical parts of insects and some specific processes, by creating analogies with the human body. For instance, terms such as cuticle and chitin are described as follows: “I guess in comparison would probably just be the skin”, “So it’s like your fingernail”. This process draws on personification techniques and can be referred to as anthropocentric analogy. In the following excerpt, based on the examination of another entomologist, Neal Haskell, other analogical devices are employed: Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial 109 A: (Haskell) […] so when the maggots are in this third stage and they grow to their maximum length and they’ve taken in all the energy they need, then it’s just like us going to the country buffet, you know, we’ve taken enough, we’ve taken in enough, and it’s time to go home. They leave the food. They leave the country buffet, and they go into what’s known as a migrating maggot. In particular, in this case, analogies with familiar situations and the use of the inclusive first person plural pronoun “we” are used to create commonality. These processes are based on the assumption that epistemic universals allow the use of a source domain to conceptualize ideas that refer to an unknown domain. Moreover, they are generally related to everyday experiences which may be familiar to the majority of listeners and, at the same time, may be more highly memorable. 4 Discussion and conclusions The lack of specialization on the part of the jurors is one of the fundamentals of the jury trial system, and knowledge asymmetries in legal as well as other specialized disciplines (such as scientific ones) characterize this communicative event (Anesa & Kastberg 2012). Consequently, courtroom discourse often displays, on the one hand, specialized language that makes use of technical terminology and, on the other hand, everyday language that needs to transcend specialist boundaries. Therefore, popularization processes are an integral part of trial practices. Focusing in particular on expert witness examination, we have seen that popularization in this phase of the trial is intentionally guided and is co-constructed by different participants. This communicative process is based on the question-answer pattern, and attorneys often pose questions in order to clarify technical scientific concepts that may not be understood by the jurors. The notions presented must obey specific procedural as well as epistemological rules, and the process of popularization in this specific context is subject to a complex concatenation of reciprocal influences. Indeed, the law itself stringently delimits what it is admissible to say and how. Moreover, an expert may generally tend to observe the canons of a certain disciple in order to preserve or enhance his social recognition within a discourse community and to apodictically defend the legitimacy of his ideas. At the same time, however, he has to communicate his scientific truth keeping in mind the need to be cognitively accepted by his target audience. In other words, even though scientists often want to present their truth as the predominant scientific orthodoxy, they often have to frame it within discursive realizations which may seem to abandon specific technicalities for clarification purposes. Instead of reciting complex notions, experts need to make use of explanatory devices that aim at facilitating comprehension and capturing the jury’s attention. Consequently, it may be argued that their style tends to remain generally formal, avoiding Patrizia Anesa 110 excessive colloquialisms that could be deemed inappropriate. However, what takes place is a form of convergence towards the jurors’ expectations, especially in terms of presupposed knowledge structures. Popularization in expert witness examination has been investigated here with particular reference to explanatory strategies and techniques. In this analysis we have observed that different contextually controlled strategies are used to communicate scientific knowledge in expert testimony, and some of the verbally salient explanatory devices are: denominations, descriptions, paraphrasing, reformulation, and analogies. Technical knowledge is often explained through familiar structures and concrete images, using basic knowledge schemas and often playing along the lines of equivalence (and contrast). Explanation is to be intended as a continuum involving intra-, interand extraspecialist communities, as the explanatory tools used are not subject to a radical demarcation and can be employed differently according to the specific communicative purpose. For example, the use of analogical thinking permeates the realm of explanation and relegating it to a simplification tool used by experts in their approach to non-experts is highly reductive. Indeed, explanatory analogies may be based on complex processes of recontextualization and reconceptualization and may assume a variety of pragmatic functions (e.g. informative, argumentative, or persuasive). From a general perspective, popularization has been defined as “the translation of complex and esoteric ideas into the terms of everyday life” (Yoxen 1985: 163). However, popularization cannot be seen as a mere intra-linguistic translation aimed at transposing complicated topics into a more accessible language. If we want to associate the process of popularization with the process of translation, that connection has to be based on a more sophisticated conceptualization of the notion of translation, where the process is intended as a phenomenon of text production, with the creation of a new autonomous text, where complex cognitive, discursive and socio-pragmatic processes are involved (see Hatim & Mason 1997, Pérez-Llantada Auría 2001). As Green clearly states (1985: 139), popularization has often been described as a form of pollution of the purity of scientific evidence. According to this myth, science is inevitably transformed and altered to the extent that its nature is distorted and degraded and the original meaning is lost. In this view, science is seen as pre-existing its communication to non experts, and during the passage from inside to outside the scientific community, the risk of distortion is constant, thus contributing to the creation and diffusion of false knowledge, as opposed to the orthodox pre-existing knowledge. Such concern is particularly relevant in expert examinations, where some participants may overlook or hide certain scientific principles in order to support their version of the case and achieve their persuasive purposes. However, popularization clearly cannot be reduced to a distorted representation of science. As has been stated, the process implies a re-contextualization and representation of knowledge that is not discernible from its Explaining Science: The Popularization of Scientific Evidence in a Jury Trial 111 context. It is true that scientific concepts represented within specific disciplinary constraints may appear considerably different from their representation within popularized discourses in terms of semiotic, textual and discursive resources. It is also true that some of the scientific criteria on which specialized texts are based may not be respected during communication to the lay public. However, adopting a dichotomic view between two separate versions of the “same” science is misleading, in that they are two different discourses with their own autonomy, principles, and characteristics. On a concluding note, further avenues for research in the area of popularization certainly call for a multidisciplinary approach. 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Burket (University of Palermo, Italy) 1 Introduction The incredible proliferation and popularity of forensic science oriented television programmes in the U.S. over the last decade have not only revealed - and capitalized on - cultural anxieties regarding the fallibility of the U.S. system of justice but have played an active part in changing the dynamics of the relationships between scientific and legal discourse, both for legal professionals and the public. During this period, the status and credibility of scientific discourse have grown significantly in popular culture while public trust in the legal system has markedly declined. At a time of increasing distrust in government and public institutions and greater awareness of the risks present in everyday life, such television programmes present science as the last bastion of security in a risky world. As Byers and Johnson (2009) argue regarding CSI: Crime Scene Investigation (CSI), the most prominent of these series, CSI reinforces the notion that we have in some ways been abandoned by the state and its key players (including in some ways the police, the law), and yet risk is constant [….] In most episodes of CSI crimes are (re)solved less through litigation and sentencing then [sic] through the identification of an often elusive “truth” […] which is also often a moral lesson in the idiosyncratic nature of risk, and the impossibility of its mitigation. If crime and risk are impossible to mitigate; if lawyers and the police (and thus in some capacity the state) have failed, CSI tells us that we are left with the truth of the body, a truth that can only be discovered by objective forensic scientists [….] in a world in which risk cannot be mitigated, in which neither law nor order can necessarily be counted on, and in which the state is in many ways unaccountable, only these individuals and their science can speak for and save us (and thus effect some redemption for law, order, the state) (2009: xv). However, it is important to note that, while science (and scientists) may thus be constructed as providing the possibility of an objective truth that can guarantee security and justice in a way that “human” institutions such as the legal system cannot, this can only happen if such science is deployed from within the legal system. Without the force of law behind it, science would only be Richard E. Burket 116 able to declare the truth - it would remain inconsequential because there would be no apparatus to bring about the proper effects of such truth and thus obtain justice and security. Thus, what is at issue in this cultural phenomenon is not whether legal discourse is being overtaken or superseded by scientific discourse, but rather the dynamics of their recombination as scientific discourse has taken up a more prominent place within the U.S. legal system. It is precisely this complicated symbiotic relationship between scientific and legal discourse that forms the core dynamic of many contemporary popularizations of the nexus between science and law. This is the case not only for popularizations in the sense of the reformulation and re-contextualization of specialized discourse for a popular, non-specialist audience (see, e.g., Calsamiglia & Van Dijk, 2004; Gotti, 2005, 2013), but also for the recontextualization of one specialized discourse within another, such as the particular way that scientific discourse has been incorporated into legal discourse in the wake of a series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings and the revision of the Federal Rules of Evidence (FRE) regarding the admission of expert scientific testimony in the courtroom (Burket, 2013). The central aspect of these popularizations is the way that scientific discourse has been constructed as a supporting element for the credibility of legal decisions, both for jurors who are called upon to render verdicts and the general public which must (to one degree or another) accept them. In re-contextualizing scientific discourse for its own discursive and institutional needs, the legal system, seeking to strengthen the credibility of its own more subjective and adversarial approach to truth-production, capitalized on pre-existing popular ideas of science as a neutral, objective practice capable of producing the unequivocal truth about the world. Subsequently, when reformulated and re-contextualized again in forensic science oriented television shows, a variety of forces and interests converge to produce the particular formulations of popularized scientific and legal discourse that are broadcast. As Gotti (2013) points out, “mass media are no longer seen as passive mediators of scientific knowledge, but as active participants in the production of novel information and new opinions about science and scientists, often including views that do not derive from scientific sources” (2013: 19-20). The popularized versions of science that such shows promulgate are determined by the (perceived) needs of their producers and creators, their genre, their audience, their advertisers, and the culture at large. Thus, while these shows do place some emphasis on scientific realism, sticking strictly to the facts of forensic science technologies and practices is less of a priority than effectively communicating their larger message about science and how it secures us against the risks that pervade our lives. This is even more obvious in the concept of science itself which has been chosen for these representations, as the positivistic idea of science selected is far from dominant within scientific professions which currently favour more probabilistic models of truth. Competing Credibilities: The Impact of the Popularization of Courtroom Science 117 Furthermore, an important aspect of these popularizations of science and law is not only the way they play a role in what the public “knows” about science and the law, but also the way they affect public perceptions of their validity as discourses of truth: such popularizations affect not only the public’s knowledge but the very credibility and cultural status of these discourses. As Vidmar (2005) points out, a trial “is not exclusively about truth in the scientific sense, but rather about the balance of contested facts and about bringing closure to a dispute” (2005: S137). Indeed, there are key differences between legally determined facts - the validity of which derives from the proper adherence to a set of formal procedures - and scientific facts - which are also dependent upon following certain procedures (scientific method, best practices) yet whose ultimate status as accepted facts is also rooted in their repeatability and empirical relation to observable reality. Furthermore, scientific facts are subject to constant revision and testing to achieve a better fit to the known world as knowledge changes over time, whereas legal facts are revisable only under very limited and formal conditions (in the appeals process) and do not ultimately rely on empirical validation for their power or acceptance. In contemporary U.S. culture, science’s openness to empirical reality and (seeming) objectivity give its truth claims stronger credibility than those from the legal sphere, whose need to achieve closure even without empirical certainty renders its truth claims more dubious in the public’s mind because of the interestedness of the parties. Thus, with the development and increasing availability of forensic techniques that can purportedly identify guilty suspects or establish indisputable facts about a legal case, there has quite understandably been a tendency by prosecutors to use them to take some of the subjectiveness out of the jury’s deliberations and augment the credibility of the verdict. Emblematic of the fundamental differences in the way the public perceives legal and scientific discourse is the way that their “failures” are viewed. The credibility of the legal system suffers in the public’s mind when it comes to light that an innocent person has been convicted and sentenced to a long prison term (or even to death), even if this discovery comes about through the normal workings of the appeals process. Claims that such corrections of injustice ultimately validate the legal system because its procedures produced the correct result in the end tend to ring hollow in the public’s ears. For science, on the other hand, when an important theory or result is shown to be false, this only further validates the scientific method and scientific practice as it is seen as continually striving to find the truth. Given this cultural situation, it would seem rather obvious that the increasing use of science in the courtroom would be a boon to public confidence in the U.S. legal system. Keeping in mind science’s “cognitive authority” (Merton, 1976) within the contemporary order of discourse and the “epistemic power of [scientific] expertise” (Fuller 2006: 342) in U.S. culture, it seems both logical and intuitive that such authority and power would, to some extent, rub off on the legal discourse that deploys it. Such a possibility would only seem more Richard E. Burket 118 likely given the explosion in, and popularity of, forensic science oriented television series such as CSI. These shows provide a steady stream of images of heroic scientific investigators who use advanced scientific techniques to ferret out the guilty, effectively bypassing the messy, confusing, and subjective (i.e., human) aspects of traditional police work with the neat simplicity of objective (i.e., nonhuman) positivistic science. Indeed, Hohenstein (2009) identifies a “dueling set of public values about criminal justice institutions and processes” (2009: 61) which is clearly marked between the more ambiguous and complex approach taken by the older Law & Order franchise and the simplified scientific path to the truth presented by the CSI franchise. In the shift in public taste from Law & Order’s focus on procedural conflicts and the inevitable complication of the truth by the surrounding contexts of the events to CSI’s emphasis on the uncovering of contextless facts which lead to unequivocal truths, contemporary fantasies about the possibility of certainty for truth and justice, along with a growing intolerance for uncertainty, are clearly at play. Strangely, however, given the way that forensic science techniques and scientific investigators on CSI and other similar shows are clearly and overtly constructed in ways to lend greater credibility to the legal system in which they operate, the most widely publicized aspect of this popularization of science in the legal sphere is instead how reliance on such science is allegedly destroying public confidence in the legal system, undermining prosecutors’ ability to obtain convictions. Now, it is claimed, jurors expect, even demand, indisputable scientific evidence before they will vote to convict a defendant, even though there is absolutely no legal requirement for such evidence. As one writer puts it: Stoked by the technical wizardry they see on the tube, many Americans find themselves disappointed when they encounter the real world of law and order. Jurors increasingly expect forensic evidence in every case, and they expect it to be conclusive [….] A disappointed jury can be a dangerous thing (Roane 2005). This idea is what has come to be called the “CSI Effect,” a phrase that seems to have first appeared in late 2002 (Franzen, 2002; Kluger, 2002) and which has been the subject of literally hundreds of newspaper and magazine articles in the U.S. and abroad (see, e.g., Byers & Johnson, 2009; Cole & Dioso-Villa, 2009; National Clearinghouse for Science, Technology and the Law, 2006) as well as a large number of law review and other academic journal articles. These are just a few of the headlines that have appeared in recent years: “Art Trips Up Life: TV Crime Shows Influence Jurors - CSI: The Expectation of Futuristic Hard-Science Evidence Leads to Acquittals in Cases Prosecutors Thought Were Airtight” (Klein, 2004) “Jurors Swept Up in ‘CSI Effect’: TV Makes Them Expect Too Much” (Farkas, 2006) Competing Credibilities: The Impact of the Popularization of Courtroom Science 119 “Jurors Gone Wild: How TV and the Internet Are Driving Juries out of Control” (Baldas, 2005) “Crime Sleuths Cope with ‘CSI’ Effect: Forensic Experts Dogged by TV Expectations” (Boyle, 2005) “The ‘CSI Effect’: TV’s False Reality Fools Jurors” (Coscarelli, 2005) “Trial by ‘CSI’: Jurors Influenced by the Popular TV Shows Increasingly Demand Prime-Time-Style Evidence - and Lawyers Must Adjust” (Dribben, 2006) “‘CSI Effect’ Lifts Burden of Proof for Prosecutors” (Pritchard, 2006) “TV Shows Distort Juries’ Expectation of Proof, Some Say” (Stockwell, 2005) “The ‘CSI Effect’: Juries Demand More Evidence” (Wojdacz, 2008) “The ‘CSI’ Effect: How TV Influences Criminal Justice” (Moritz, 2013). Essentially, the claim made by those warning the public about the pernicious influence of the “CSI Effect” 1 is that the popularization of scientific discourse performed and enacted in these kinds of shows is undermining the credibility of the very legal system that real science has been called upon to sustain through the testimony of “experts.” This happens, it is claimed, not because jurors have come to demand the nonexistent technologies and techniques that constitute a substantial proportion of those depicted on television (see Cole & Dioso, 2005) - but rather because they have come to discount traditional kinds of legally valid evidence, insisting upon some kind of scientific evidence before they are willing to convict. Thus, it is alleged that juries, instead of seeing scientific evidence as a supplement to standard kinds of legal evidence which can lend greater confidence to the decision, instead want to replace such evidence with the seemingly unquestionable validity of scientific evidence as the determinant of the very possibility of confidence in the decision. So, how is it possible to have arrived at this counterintuitive belief that the very discourse whose elevated cultural status within the contemporary order of discourse has been so crucial to maintaining the law’s credibility in recent decades is now allegedly threatening to render it dysfunctional, precisely because of the public’s trust in its truth value? 2 CSI and the “CSI Effect” CSI: Crime Scene Investigation - or CSI, as it has come to be universally known - is an American television series that focuses on the lives and work of a group of scientifically specialized crime scene investigators in Las Vegas. It first aired in 2000 and has recently completed its 13 th season, with 295 episodes broadcast, and it has been renewed for season 14. It is commonly re- 1 There have been a variety of different “CSI Effects” proposed by researchers (see, e.g.,Cole & Dioso-Villa, 2007, 2009), but by far the most common one reported in popular media is the one detailed herein. Richard E. Burket 120 ferred to as a franchise, having spawned two spin-off series (CSI: Miami and CSI: New York) as well as a variety of other media products including comic books, video games, and novels. In terms of popularity, it ranked in the top 10 of U.S. television programmes for its first 11 seasons and has been in the top 25 or better since. It has been shown in over 50 countries worldwide and has been the world’s most-watched television series five out of the last seven years (Bibel, 2012). Its success has inspired or influenced a number of other shows which are either centered on or conspicuously feature forensic science in their storylines, including Bones, Body of Evidence, Cold Case, Criminal Minds, Crossing Jordan, Dexter, NCIS, Numb3rs, and Without a Trace, as well as a number of reality-based forensic shows such as Forensic Files, and Cold Case Files. Assurances by its creator, Anthony E. Zuiker, that “all of the science is accurate and we have real CSI’s [sic] on staff that help us write the scripts and make sure everything is executed perfectly” (Nanji, 2005) aside, it is perhaps unnecessary to point out that CSI does not present a particularly accurate representation of the reality of law enforcement practices and forensic police work. 2 At best, it might charitably be described as a sort of “aspirational” realism, presenting an image of policing and the justice system that the audience would like to have instead of the obviously flawed one that they do have. In real life, of course, DNA test results are not typically available in a matter of seconds or minutes (they often take weeks, even months), grainy video images taken from a great distance cannot be rendered crystal clear with the push of a button, and it is not technically possible to pour casting plaster into a stab wound and obtain an exact mold of the knife that inflicted the injury (as happened in a Season One episode). Moreover, most crime scene investigators do not, in fact, work directly for the police or sheriff’s department, do not participate in arrests, and certainly do not carry and fire weapons - nor are those who gather evidence at the crime scene permitted to do the laboratory analyses of the same evidence. CSI is, after all, a fictional show whose contents must not only satisfy the needs of realism but also of its medium, its audience demographics, and its genre, not to mention the fundamental requirement that everything be wrapped up by the end of a 42-minute American television “hour,” opening and closing credits included. Aside from these factual liberties, however, are some more telling fantasies at the level of message. The crimes on CSI are almost always solved in the laboratory or in the field, not in the courtroom: as one experienced forensic investigator has commented, “television experts never seem to go to court. The crime’s always solved, obviously within an hour” (MacDowell, 2005). Moreover, the crimes are almost always solved to 100% certainty - there is almost always a perfect “match” - conveying the idea that “criminal science is 2 One forensic scientist, Thomas Mauriello, has claimed that as much as 40% of the science depicted on CSI does not exist (Cole & Dioso, 2005). Competing Credibilities: The Impact of the Popularization of Courtroom Science 121 fast and infallible and always gets its man” (Willing, 2004).Apart from the relatively obvious way this show caters to cultural anxieties about the fallibility of the U.S. legal system, furnishing an infallible vision of science and scientists to guarantee the possibility of justice, CSI has emerged as a perhaps surprisingly - it is, after all, “only” a television series - central element in the larger cultural debate over the role and status of scientific discourse within the U.S. legal system. Indeed, CSI has had an enormous opportunity to present to the public its double message that the truth is out there, to be found in the physical world, and that scientists working with/ for the police can and will find it, and that this objectivity serves as a guarantee that justice can and will be done in courts of law. The show is rife with claims regarding the infallibility of science. In an early episode, the central character, Gil Grissom, tells his investigator to “Concentrate on what doesn’t lie: The evidence” (Zuiker & Watkins, 2000). Such claims are frequently paired with the contrasting fallibility of humans. Grissom explains, for example, that “I tend not to believe people. People lie. The evidence doesn’t lie” (Donahue & Cannon, 2000). The source of such human unreliability is precisely their subjective nature and desires; true scientists, such as he and his fellow CSIs, “don’t impose our will. We don’t impose our hopes on the evidence” (Lipsitz & Antonio, 2000). In a later exchange, when a colleague doubts the results they have obtained and holds an opinion that is contrary to the findings, Grissom tells her: “That’s not what the evidence says.” She replies that, “Well, maybe the evidence is wrong,” which he rebuts: “You can be wrong, I can be wrong, but the evidence is just the evidence” (Mendelsohn, Shankar, & Fink, 2004). Such rhetoric clearly supports law enforcement credibility, claiming that the use of science can help avoid human bias and error and thus miscarriages of justice. In fact, a typical episode’s plot features a progression of false starts and misleading clues, usually based on assumptions made by nonscientific/ police investigators, which are ultimately resisted by the crime scene investigators who go on to discover the truth, no matter how strange, by ignoring the people involved and their social contexts in order to focus strictly on physical evidence. Furthermore, this construction of crime scene investigators and laboratory analysts as unbiased scientists whose only desire is to find out the truth - when the reality is sometimes far from this ideal, whether due to overt corruption, as has been seen in various crime lab scandals, or more subtle instances of observer effects, motivational bias, and information contamination (Risinger, Saks, Thompson, & Rosenthal, 2002) - can affect the public’s and thus jurors’ ideas about the credibility of forensic “experts” called to testify in court. In fact, the vast majority of forensic witnesses called to testify in court work for the same state agency that is prosecuting the case and present testimony only for the prosecution, making them far from inherently neutral, disinterested parties. Richard E. Burket 122 Indeed defense attorneys have complained that the law’s exploitation of the public’s trust in science has been unfairly used to sway juries who lack the ability to properly assess the scientific testimony before them and believe it merely because it is called “science” and the person called to testify regarding it is officially deemed an “expert.” 3 Cole and Dioso-Villa (2007, 2009), in fact, identify at least six different potential “CSI Effects,” noting that there is little conclusive evidence of any of the effects, though pointing out that the most “intuitive” is what they call the “defendant’s effect,” in which jurors afford greater credibility to forensic scientists; on the contrary, the “strong prosecutor’s effect,” which claims that jurors actually acquit defendants who would otherwise be convicted were it not for exposure to CSI and which is by far the most dominant of the effects mentioned in media coverage, is termed the most “counterintuitive.” In reality, though, it is this latter sort of effect, allegedly raising the standard of proof in favour of defendants at the expense of the prosecution, that has come to be known by the public and legal professionals as the “CSI Effect.” Whether or not such a “CSI Effect” exists empirically remains an open question, though most academic studies that have tested for its presence have resolutely failed to find evidence of it (see, e.g., Cole & Dioso-Villa, 2007, 2009; Georgette, 2010; Shelton, Kim, & Barak, 2006, 2009). However, it certainly forms a prominent part of American discursive reality, revealing a distinct anxiety within the legal profession over the credibility of its own discourse. Invariably, articles which assert the existence of the “CSI Effect” rely on the perspective of prosecutors who claim, anecdotally, that they have faced juror skepticism or outlandish demands - or have even lost cases which should have been “slam dunks” - due to the interference of ideas about the proper role of science in the courtroom drawn from television forensic shows. One study by the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office (2005) in Arizona found that 38% of prosecutors surveyed felt that they had had at least one trial with adequate evidence to sustain a conviction result in either a deadlocked jury or acquittal instead, and that 45% of prosecutors in cases that presented both scientific and traditional testimony felt that the jury focused primarily on the scientific evidence to the exclusion of unscientific evidence such as witnesses and police testimony; moreover, 70% of prosecutors surveyed reported that they had begun to take preemptive measures against the “CSI Effect,” such as asking about television viewing habits during jury selection (2005: 5-6). While such anecdotal evidence is far from conclusive at the empirical level - especially given that such claims assert the perception of the effect and not the effect itself - it certainly provides clear evidence of the discursive reality of this phenomenon as well as its potential intrusion into the practice of crim- 3 Empirical research, though, does not support such strong claims of uncritical acceptance of expert and scientific evidence by juries (see Vidmar, 2005; Vidmar & Diamond, 2001). Competing Credibilities: The Impact of the Popularization of Courtroom Science 123 inal law. Indeed, so powerful and widespread is the belief in the harm it is doing that steps are being taken in some states to counter the (still unproven) influence of the “CSI Effect” on juries. In 2010, for instance, the Ohio State Bar Association introduced new jury instructions regarding outside influences which include the admonition that, While entertaining, TV legal dramas condense, distort, or even ignore many procedures that take place in real cases and real courtrooms. No matter how convincing they try to be, these shows simply cannot depict the reality of an actual trial or investigation. You must put aside anything you think you know about the legal system that you saw on TV (Hoffmeister 2010). In particular, they note that shows like CSI, “which present the use of scientific procedures to resolve criminal investigations [….] may leave you with an improper preconceived idea about the legal system” (Hoffmeister, 2010; see also Koppel, 2010). Moreover, while it acknowledges the unproven status of claims regarding the “CSI Effect,” an article published on the American Bar Association website offers advice to attorneys on how to counteract and manage the “CSI Effect” at all stages of the trial process, recommending that, Rather than fight against this growing mind-set, trial lawyers should adapt their trial skills to manage unrealistic expectations and ensure that the cornerstone of deductive reasoning in our legal system is not buried by potentially inadmissible evidence and/ or lost to fallible science and technology. (Dysart 2012). Given this material intrusion into the everyday practices of the legal system by the “CSI Effect,” as well as its consequences for popular perceptions of science and the legal system, it is important to trace the origins and patterns of dissemination of the idea of science behind the phenomenon, both inside and outside of legal discourse, in order to understand and assess the dynamics involved. 3 The popularization of scientific discourse within legal discourse How scientific discourse and scientific expertise arrive in the courtroom is but one of several paths of scientific popularization at play in the legal system. There is, of course, the (quite variable) general level of lay scientific knowledge for all the actors (judges, attorneys, jurors) taken from school, popular media, and other sources which forms their background orientation toward scientific discourse. More directly, there is the specific mediation of scientific experts as they testify in terms the jury can understand, especially through their use of metaphors, equivalences, and visual aids, and there is also mediation by the attorneys as they integrate such scientific testimony into the narratives they construct as they seek to convince a jury of their particular version of the facts Richard E. Burket 124 involved in the case at issue (see Anesa, 2012). In the middle, between the baseline popularization of scientific discourse underlying the general public’s perceptions of science and the case-specific or even expert-specific formulation of a particular element of scientific discourse produced during expert testimony before a jury, is the institutional level of popularization in which the U.S. legal system has specifically defined what constitutes valid science within the scope of its procedures. A series of U.S. Supreme Court rulings in the 1990s established the procedures by which scientific and other types of expert testimony could be admitted into evidence, shifting the power to assess the validity, reliability, and relevance of the proffered expertise away from the individual expert and his/ her field and toward the trial court judge. Ostensibly, the particular modality of the incorporation of scientific discourse within legal discourse sought to bring the cultural power of scientific discourse to the more dubious realm of the law in order to supplement its credibility as a discourse of truth. Indeed, the specific standards established, while paying lip-service to scientific terminology and concepts (e.g., reliability and validity), clearly placed the determination of scientific validity for use in the courtroom squarely on the side of legal standards of validity rather than scientific ones (Burket, 2013). However, instead of the intended synergy envisioned between these two discourses - in which the law would grant scientific knowledge special status and cultural power in exchange for the additional aura of truth conveyed by science - what becomes visible in the public and professional anxiety regarding the “CSI Effect” is the perception of a competition, or even a conflict, between their credibilities which, perhaps ironically, grows out of the law’s initial attempt to buttress its credibility by incorporating a particular kind of scientific discourse. Essentially, legal actors are now worried that they have cultivated too much faith in science and have ceded too much power to it, to the detriment of their own credibility, though they choose to blame it on “the media” as some kind of third-party agent rather than acknowledge the complex web of interconnection and interplay between the legal sphere and popular culture. It is at the institutional level of popularization that we can find some of the underlying causes of this anxiety over credibility. As I have argued previously (Burket, 2013), the particular way in which the U.S. legal system has popularized scientific discourse in its reformulation of standards for the admissibility of expert testimony ultimately rests upon a positivistic idea of science, one in which properly applied scientific procedures are believed to transparently produce the empirical truth. This view of science has been directly promoted by the U.S. Supreme Court - one of the most powerful centering institutions (Blommaert, 2005) not only for legal discourse but for the whole of American culture - in its rulings and subsequently integrated into federal law. As specified in FRE 702, expert testimony is admissible in court only when it is “is based upon sufficient facts or data […] is the product of reliable principles Competing Credibilities: The Impact of the Popularization of Courtroom Science 125 and methods, and […] the witness has applied the principles and methods reliably to the facts of the case” (FRE, 2010). Thus, scientific practice is envisioned as able to provide objectively reliable results through an adequate accretion of facts arrived at through the application of impersonal methodology, leaving aside the more subtle, probabilistic orientation of contemporary science and the widespread acknowledgment that science is, ultimately, a situated social practice rather than a set of neutral procedures capable of producing unequivocal truths. Constructed in this way, scientific testimony is able to have a more powerful and definitive truth-effect in the courtroom. First, having been deemed admissible by the presiding judge (and thus validated to some extent in the jury’s eyes as having already been vetted, even though it is to the legal standards for science, not scientific ones), it is presented explicitly as “expert testimony,” which overtly conveys upon it a special status, a higher degree of credibility than ordinary testimony. Second, within the order of discourse characterizing contemporary America, the indexical value of scientific discourse is particularly high, granting it a status which permits it to validate or invalidate claims made in nearly any other discourse. If a defendant has an alibi witness who testifies that there is no way that he could have been present at a crime scene, yet forensic “experts” have found his fingerprints at the scene - who is the jury going to believe? If 10 eyewitnesses identify a suspect as the perpetrator of an attack but the DNA found on the victim is not his, which evidence is going to be more convincing? And while, of course, most real scientists would prefer to focus on the probabilistic rather than absolute nature of such findings, such subtleties tend to be lost on a general public which has been conditioned to receive/ perceive scientific evidence as incontrovertible facts. It is precisely this epistemic power of scientific discourse that shows like CSI both capitalize upon and enhance. While positivistic ideas about science have existed for a long time, it was the U.S. Supreme Court in Daubert v. Merrell Dow Pharmaceuticals (1993) and subsequent rulings that institutionalized this version of scientific discourse within legal discourse. From the high court it passed to the lower federal courts as well as to many state courts which adopted in whole or in part many of the aspects of the Daubert ruling, as well as to the FRE when it was modified in 2000. However, the legal system does not exist in a vacuum, and these ideas about what constitutes valid science and its role in trials also passed to the general public - not from studying the case law, of course, but through televised trials. To mention but one famous (or infamous, as the case may be) example, the O.J. Simpson trial in 1994-95 drove home the idea that it is physical evidence that matters most, and that a single piece of apparently incontrovertible physical evidence (the ill-fitting bloody glove) can outweigh all the other evidence produced at trial and be conclusive regarding guilt or Richard E. Burket 126 innocence. 4 The contemporary mediascape is also quite porous, and there has been a high degree of cross-flow between the televised reality of criminal trials and the televisual reality of the police procedural genre. Not only do television episodes feature “ripped from the headlines” stories adapted from and inspired by real cases, but it seems that lawyers also take cues about how to present themselves and their cases from those they watch on television. More importantly, though, there seems to be a reciprocal influence between them in terms of ideas about how science can and should be used in court and its evidentiary power. Not only do television crime shows inform juror expectations of how court cases are and ought to be conducted, and of what constitutes convincing evidence and reasonable doubt, but legal actors also infer the way that jurors may be affected by these shows and thus take these predicted effects into account in preparing their cases. These changes in trial strategy can then pass back into the televisual reality through publicized and televised trials, and so on though this feedback loop. Thus, it is more than a bit disingenuous for those in the legal profession to complain that the fictional forensics of CSI are corrupting the legal system or rendering it less efficacious. The portrayal of such scientific evidence as absolutely conclusive would not itself seem “realistic” in legal contexts were it not for the specific way that the U.S. Supreme Court chose to popularize science within the legal system by favouring positivism over a more nuanced and probabilistic model of science. By choosing a version of science that is better able to provide the sort of definitive closure that legal discourse requires to be credible, by privileging the concept of science most suited to the ends and aims of the legal sphere rather than that considered more valid within scientific fields, the legal sphere itself must acknowledge its role in the creation of this credibility crisis. Supplementing their own flagging credibility by incorporating a discourse with a higher indexical value and cultural valence, legal institutions perhaps imagined that the result would be simply cumulative. However, this recourse to deploying scientific discourse within legal discourse altered both discourses in the process, and the intended aim of increasing the credibility of legal discourse by “piggy-backing” on the indexical value of scientific discourse also altered the validity conditions of legal discourse. Making the reliability of legal discourse more scientifically grounded risked invalidating, to one degree or another, the host discourse by undermining and devaluing its own status and validation processes. And it is precisely anxiety regarding this self-inflicted devaluation that we can see manifested in the (still 4 The more recent Casey Anthony acquittal in 2011 also proved, to the consternation of many, that juries may not be convinced by overwhelming testimony regarding the nefarious character of the defendant coupled with some indirect physical evidence when there is a glaring hole in the scientific evidence presented—in this case, a failure to definitively determine the cause of death of the alleged victim. However, it has also been alleged that this verdict was due to the “CSI Effect” (see, e.g., Picht 2011). 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Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino * (University of Salento, Italy) 1 Introduction University textbooks represent the most important pedagogic genre of the academy. They play a fundamental role in the students’ acquisition of the concepts and methods of a discipline, and can help to introduce them to its norms, values, and epistemological assumptions. However, textbook writers’ efforts to provide a coherent picture of their discipline and explain and clarify unfamiliar content for novice students appear to involve rhetorical practices which are very different from the argumentative and persuasive strategies employed in the more prestigious research genres, in which writers present new findings and seek to persuade an expert audience to accept new knowledge claims. These differences are among the sources of some of the major limitations of the textbook genre often pointed out in the literature (see, for example, Hyland 1999; Myers 1992), and in particular indicate that the linguistic and rhetorical practices employed by textbook authors to achieve their primary goal of presenting the established views and theories of their discipline as clearly as possible may provide limited guidance to students in their acquisition of the specialized literacy of their disciplinary community, making it more difficult for them “to use the research literature in their studies or to develop appropriate rhetorical skills in their writing” (Hyland 2000: 130). As Hyland (1999) underlines, “learning a discipline through the linguistic forms of textbooks does not introduce students to the full range of conventions within which the socio-cultural system of the discipline is encoded” (1999: 22). At the same time, however, it is generally agreed that the purpose of the textbook is not only to convey appropriate disciplinary content, but also to introduce students to the norms, values, and epistemological issues of the discipline (see, for example, Hyland 1999, 2000, 2005, 2009; Love 1991, 2002, 2003; Swales 1995). As Hyland (2005) in fact concludes, “Like research articles, the textbook is also a community-constructed genre, embodying disciplinary conventions, values and practices as authors draw on the theoretical, * Antonella Calogiuri is responsible for Sections 1, 3, and 4. Grazia Marisa Saracino is responsible for Section 2. Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 132 research and rhetorical vocabularies which represent their field” (2005: 161). In various ways, then, textbooks represent, at least in part, the discourse of their parent communities, and thus may assist students in the acquisition of the values, ideologies, and rhetorical practices of their new disciplinary communities. Given, then, the particular, often problematic, relationship between textbooks and the more prestigious research genres, in our investigation we compare the use of some relevant linguistic features in a corpus of textbook chapters in the academic field of Marketing with a corpus of research articles in the same discipline, with the aim of gaining a better understanding of the aspects of language use that contribute to the rhetorical distinctiveness of textbooks and of the role they play in the disciplinary acculturation of students. More particularly, in the analysis conducted so far, the linguistic features examined have been the modal auxiliaries, both epistemic and nonepistemic, which have been the subject of a separate study (Calogiuri and Saracino 2012), and hedging forms in the remaining grammatical classes used to express epistemic modality, and, in particular, epistemic lexical verbs, adverbs, and adjectives, which will be the focus of the present paper. The decision to extend the analysis to the other grammatical classes used to express epistemic modality was mainly motivated by the results obtained from our study of the modal auxiliaries in the two genres (see above), which revealed numerous, significant differences in their use of both epistemic and non-epistemic modals. It appeared clear, however, that to obtain a clearer picture of the hedging practices in the two genres it was necessary to examine the use of hedging forms in all the grammatical classes used to express epistemic modality, also in light of interesting differences in their functions and distributions already emerged in the two corpora in the course of a preliminary analysis, differences which did not seem to be entirely in line with the observations in the literature about the paucity of hedges in the textbook genre (see, for example, Myers 1992). In the following sections, the most significant differences identified in the two corpora analyzed in their use of the hedging categories investigated will be detailed and discussed, together with the distinctive functions performed by particular hedging categories in the two genres. In the analysis of hedging, the taxonomy adopted is the one proposed by Hyland (1996, 1998a), who, extending and building on previous studies and situating hedging in scientific writing in its socio-rhetorical and institutional contexts, has developed a comprehensive explanatory framework for academic hedging which brings together sociological, linguistic, and discourse analytic perspectives. Underlining that “hedging in scientific research writing is the product of informational, rhetorical, and personal choices and cannot be fully understood in isolation from its social and institutional contexts” (Hyland 1998a: ix), Hyland recognizes as the single primary objective of hedging use in academic writing the overcoming of the inherent refutability of statements to Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 133 gain the reader’s acceptance of a knowledge claim. Another central argument in Hyland (1996, 1998a) is that, in achieving this objective, hedges can focus primarily on either the proposition or the reader, and that in the former case they may aim to increase propositional precision or minimize writer responsibility for propositional truth. Thus, Hyland (1996, 1998a) bases his model of hedging on a broad distinction between “Content-oriented hedges” and “Reader-oriented hedges”, further subdividing the former category into “Accuracyoriented hedges” and “Writer-oriented hedges”. Accuracy-oriented hedges, which, in turn, can be further subdivided, as we will see, into Attribute hedges and Reliability hedges, are proposition-focused and enable writers to express statements with greater precision and appropriate caution. Writer-oriented hedges are “writer-focused and aim to shield the writer from the possible consequences of negatability by limiting personal commitment” to the truth of the proposition (Hyland 1998a: 170). Finally, Reader-oriented hedges, as we will see later in more detail, help the writer in the development of a relationship with the reader, by addressing the need for modesty and deference to the views of colleagues in gaining acceptance of knowledge claims. The model of hedging developed by Hyland (1996, 1998a) thus provides a comprehensive framework which can account for the pragmatic functions of hedges in academic writing. Besides, while based on Hyland’s (1996, 1998a) analysis of hedging in scientific research articles (precisely, a corpus of articles in the field of cell and molecular biology), it appears clear that the model can be usefully extended to other academic genres, helping identify the most common patterns of hedging and the role that hedging plays in different genres and domains. Even more importantly, as noted above, Hyland’s model situates hedging in academic writing in the social and institutional contexts in which it occurs, showing that, like other conventions of academic writing, hedging is a reflection of the social practices of disciplinary communities, and that writer purposes are deeply influenced by the norms, values, expectations, and epistemologies of their disciplines. As Hyland (1998a) concludes, “Hedging is a convention firmly embodied in a ‘rhetoric of science’, a linguistic resource adopted by writers for particular rhetorical ends and which both encodes and reflects particular cultural practices” (1998a: 35). 2 Method As already indicated, the present study is based on the analysis of two corpora: a corpus of eight complete chapters from introductory textbooks in Marketing and a corpus of eight research articles in the same discipline. The eight research articles comprising the journal corpus were chosen at random from recent issues of eight leading journals in the field of Marketing, identified on the basis of the impact factor reported in the Journal Citation Reports 2008 and submitted to an expert informant. Care was taken to select only articles based on original research to include in the corpus papers with a Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 134 similar rhetorical purpose. Our expert informant also helped us in the choice of the eight introductory textbooks as well as in the selection of the eight chapters - one from each textbook - to analyze, concentrating the choice on the chapters containing core reading material. The journals and textbooks selected are listed in the Appendix. Both the textbook chapters and the articles selected were scanned, producing two electronic corpora of, respectively, 115,251 and 75,850 words, after excluding appendices, references, text in tables and graphics, and, in the case of the research articles, the abstracts. To identify the hedging items in the corpus, a list of relevant forms in each of the grammatical classes expressing epistemic modality was compiled from previous studies. These included specific studies on hedging in academic writing (Hyland 1996a, b; Hyland 1998a, b; Hyland and Milton 1997; Holmes 1988), the lists of hedging items contained in Hyland (2000, 2005), reference grammars (Biber et al. 1999; Leech and Svartvik 1994; Quirk et al. 1985), and works in the modality literature, in particular Coates (1983), Leech (1987), and Palmer (1990). The textbook chapters and the research articles in our corpus were then analyzed manually, identifying all the relevant forms and paying particular attention to the context in which every item identified occurred to ensure that it performed a hedging function. We indicate below the grammatical classes used to express hedging investigated, together with further subdivisions within the classes and a few examples for each category: Epistemic modal verbs: a) the modals of epistemic possibility: may, might, could; b) should and ought to, which express tentative assumption; c) would, which principally represents hypothetical epistemic uses; d) certain uses of epistemic will expressing prediction. Epistemic lexical verbs: Following Hyland (1996, 1998a) and Palmer (1986), we have classified epistemic lexical verbs into two categories, further subdivided into subcategories. In particular, the two main categories are: judgement verbs and evidential verbs. These two categories have been further subdivided as follows. Judgement verbs: they have been divided into the following two categories: a) speculative verbs, including forms such as indicate, suggest, propose, assume, predict, speculate, suspect. b) deductive verbs, including forms like infer and deduce. Evidential verbs: they have been divided into the following three categories: a) sensory verbs, including forms such as appear and seem; b) narrators, including verbs like attempt and seek; Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 135 c) reporting/ quotative verbs; this last category includes a number of judgement verbs such as suggest and propose. Epistemic adverbs: As we will see in more detail in Section 3.2, following Hyland (1996a, 1998a), Biber et al. (1999), and Quirk et al. (1985), we have classified epistemic adverbs into the following four categories: a) Epistemic stance adverbs, further subdivided into four groups: a. adverbs marking the limitation of a proposition, such as generally, mainly, typically. Besides, following both Hyland (1996a, 1998a) and Biber et al. (1999), we have also included in this group a num ber of adverbs of indefinite frequency, such as often and usually; b. probability adverbs, such as probably, possibly, presumably; c. adverbs of sensory and reported evidence, such as apparently, reportedly, reputedly; d. adverbs expressing the sense in which the writer judges what is said to be true or false, such as ideally, basically, essentially. b) Downtoners, such as almost, relatively, somewhat. c) Approximating adverbs, such as approximately, about, around, followed by numerical or other quantifying expressions. d) Style stance adverbs, such as generally speaking, in a strict sense. As we will see in Section 3.2, in Hyland’s (1996, 1998a) model of hedging, all these categories of adverbs - except groups b, c, d of epistemic stance adverbs - are classified as Attribute hedges. Our groups b, c, d of epistemic stance adverbs are instead part of Reliability hedges, which express subjective uncertainty and convey the writer’s assessment of the reliability of a proposition (Hyland 1996, 1998a). The last grammatical class we have considered is that of Epistemic adjectives, such as likely, unlikely, possible, probable, plausible, presumable. In the present paper, the primary focus is on the findings concerning Epistemic lexical verbs and Epistemic adverbs. Before concentrating on the use of these two grammatical categories, however, in order to provide a clearer picture of the differences that the two genres considered show in the use of the hedging categories analyzed, in the following section we also report the overall frequencies for the other grammatical classes expressing hedging investigated in the larger study of which the present paper is part, including those for Epistemic modal verbs, which, together with non-epistemic modals, have been examined in more detail in Calogiuri and Saracino (2012). Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 136 3 Results and discussion 3.1 Epistemic lexical verbs The analysis conducted so far reveals significant differences between the two corpora analyzed in their use of the grammatical classes expressing hedging investigated, and helps identify important distinctive functions of particular hedging forms and categories in the two genres. Some of the most significant differences are already evident from Tables 1 and 2 below, which show the results for the four grammatical classes expressing hedging investigated in the textbook chapters and the research articles respectively. Class Frequency per 1,000 words Percent Raw number Adverbs 5.77 51.6 665 Modal verbs 3.35 29.9 386 Lexical verbs 1.25 11.2 144 Adjectives 0.82 7.3 94 Total 11.20 100,0 1289 a Corpus of 8 textbook chapters consisting of 115,251 words. Table 1 Frequency of grammatical classes used to express heding in Marketing textbooks a Class Frequency per 1,000 words Percent Raw number Lexical verbs 5.70 33.4 432 Modal verbs 5.66 33.2 429 Adverbs 3.12 18.3 237 Adjectives 2.58 15.1 196 Total 17.06 100,0 1294 a Corpus of 8 research articles consisting of 75,850 words. Table 2 Frequency of grammatical classes used to express hedging in Marketing articles a Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 137 It appears clear from the results shown in Tables 1 and 2 that the two corpora differ considerably in the use of the grammatical classes used to express hedging analyzed. In the research articles, the most frequent means of expressing hedging are epistemic lexical verbs and the modal auxiliaries, which show almost identical frequencies (432 occurrences for the lexical verbs, 429 for the modal verbs). In the textbook chapters, we find a definite predominance of epistemic adverbs, which, with their 665 occurrences and a frequency of 5.77 (per 1,000 words) constitute over half of all the hedges identified in the textbook corpus and greatly outnumber the second most frequent category, that is, the modal auxiliaries. It is also clear from Tables 1 and 2 that the greatest differences between the two genres are in their use of epistemic lexical verbs - the most frequent means of expressing hedging in the research articles, as seen above, while only third in the textbook corpus, where they show a frequency of 1.25 (per 1,000 words) and a total of 144 occurrences - and of epistemic adverbs, the preferred means of hedging in the textbooks, while the third most frequent category in the research articles, with a total of 237 occurrences and a frequency of 3.12 (per 1,000 words). Also important, especially considering the results for the individual modals, is the difference in the use of the Epistemic modals, much more frequent in the research articles. 1 The largest difference between the two corpora, however, is clearly in the far greater use of epistemic lexical verbs in the research papers, where, as can be seen from the results presented in Tables 1 and 2, their frequency is over four times higher than in the textbook chapters. As Hyland (1998a) underlines, “Epistemic lexical verbs represent the most transparent means of coding the subjectivity of the epistemic source, and are generally used to hedge either commitment or assertiveness” (1998a: 119). Their extensive use in research articles thus reflects their versatility in a context where it is essential to present statements with appropriate caution and deference to the views of colleagues. As Hyland (1998a) underlines, following Palmer’s (1986) analysis of Propositional modality, there are at least four ways in which a writer may indicate the non-factual status of a proposition, which Palmer (1986) calls “speculative”, “deductive”, “reported”, and “sensory”; that is, writers can moderate their claims by indicating that they are presenting information as subjective opinion, deduction, report, or as based on the evidence of their senses. Speculative and Deductive categories, part of Epistemic modality, are used to make judgements about the factual status of a proposition, allowing writers to express uncertainty, tentativeness, deductions, and to formulate tentative hypotheses. Sensory and Reported categories, part of Evidential modality, relate to the nature of the evidence the writer has to support a claim, either his/ her senses or others’ reports. In research genres, in which it is essential to specify 1 As already indicated, an analysis of the use of the modal auxiliaries, both epistemic and non-epistemic, in the two corpora is presented in Calogiuri and Saracino (2012). Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 138 and acknowledge previous findings, the choice of a reporting verb, in referring to the research literature, can indicate the writer’s level of commitment to the information reported, tentative reporting verbs, in particular, toning down commitment and indicating the writer’s reservation about the reported proposition. 2 Sensory verbs, such as appear and seem, also clearly are a very useful means of reducing personal commitment to a proposition. Providing writers with a number of ways to indicate the non-factual status of a proposition, enabling them to indicate with considerable precision their level of commitment to the truth of a statement, epistemic lexical verbs can perform different hedging functions, and more particularly, as indicated above, they can reduce either commitment or assertiveness. When they are accompanied by personal attribution (expressed either through first-person pronouns, e.g., “We propose that …”, “We infer that …”, or through firstperson possessive adjectives or pronouns, e.g., “our results suggest”), epistemic lexical verbs hedge the generalizability of a writer’s claim, marking the statement as an individual interpretation, as a personal opinion open to alternative judgements. Hedging the assertiveness of the writer’s expressions, softening the writer’s statements, indicating that claims are provisional, awaiting acceptance by the disciplinary community, epistemic lexical verbs accompanied by personal attribution are then one of the principal linguistic means that help academics to gain reader ratification of their knowledge claims by conveying an “appropriate professional persona”, which shows adherence to discourse community expectations concerning respect for the views of colleagues, adherence to limits on self-assurance, and negotiation (Hyland 1996, 1998). They belong to the hedging category that Hyland (1996, 1998a) calls “Reader-oriented hedges”, whose function, as mentioned previously, is interpersonal, and acknowledges both the reader’s role in ratifying knowledge and the need to conform to research community expectations of modesty and deference to colleagues’ views. While when accompanied by personal attribution they hedge assertiveness and act as reader-oriented hedges, with impersonal constructions epistemic lexical verbs function as writer-oriented hedges and aim, as indicate above, to shield the writer from the consequences of refutability by reducing personal commitment to statements. As Hyland (1998a) underlines, “Such hedges diminish the author’s presence in the text […], toning down the language they use to express their commitment to their research claims, as a protective insurance against the possibility of eventually being proved wrong” (1998a: 170). This function has also been recognized by numerous other authors, such as Prince et al. (1982), Rounds (1982), Powell (1985), Nash (1990), Swales (1990), who have all underlined the protective potential of hedges from the negative consequences of error and the damage which may result from strong 2 On reporting verbs see at least Hyland (2000, 2002); Shaw (1992); Swales (1990); Thomas and Hawes (1994); Thompson and Ye (1991). Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 139 commitment to a position. Writer-oriented hedges, then, enable writers to distance themselves from a proposition, reducing the risk of refutation and allowing them “to anticipate and discountenance negative reactions to the knowledge claims being advanced”, as Swales (1990: 175) clearly states. As regards the forms of writer-oriented hedges, the most distinctive feature of this type of hedges is, as Hyland (1996b, 1998a) underlines, the absence of writer agentivity, and epistemic lexical verbs in impersonal constructions are one of the principal means by which writer-oriented hedging is expressed. Claims can in fact be phrased to reduce the writer’s commitment by using passive constructions, clausal subjects (e.g., “it is proposed that ….”, “it seems that ….”), or the construction of “abstract rhetors” (Halloran 1984; Hyland 1998), which allow propositional responsibility to be attributed to features of the text or the research, such as “study”, “data”, or “findings”, suggesting that, as Hyland (1998) observes, “the situation described is independent of human agency” (1998: 172); typical examples of this strategy, which, as we will see below, is very frequent in our journal corpus are: “The results suggest that …”, “These data indicate that ….”, “The model implies that ….”. Another important use of epistemic lexical verbs as writer-oriented hedges, also very frequent in our journal corpus, as we will see below, is in citations, since, as noted above, tentative reporting verbs tone down commitment to the information reported (e.g., “Blattberg et al (1995) indicate that …”, “Bagozzi (1992) proposes that …”). If we now look at the data obtained from our journal corpus, we can see that, as shown in Table 3, the most frequent use of epistemic lexical verbs in the research articles is in fact with “abstract rhetors”, which, as can be seen in the table, constitute almost 30% of all the uses of the epistemic lexical verbs identified in the research papers. With a frequency similar to that of “abstract rhetors”, the second most common use of epistemic lexical verbs in the research papers is in Citations, where they show a frequency of 1.52 (per 1,000 words) and a total of 115 occurrences. Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 140 STRUCTURE Frequency per 1,000 words Percent Raw number Abstract rhetors 1.70 29.86 129 Citations - Research sources 1.52 26.62 115 Personal attribution 1.04 18.29 79 Passive constructions 0.50 8.80 38 Active declarative sentences with Phenomenal subjects 0.49 8.56 37 Anticipatory it 0.13 2.32 10 General references - Research sources 0.13 2.32 10 Hypothetical forms inviting reader involvement 0.11 1.85 8 Constructions with Sensory Evidential verbs referring to methods used 0.04 0.69 3 Citations - non-research sources 0.01 0.23 1 General references - non-research sources 0.01 0.23 1 Existential there 0.01 0.23 1 Totals 5.70 100.00 432 Table 3 Structures with epistemic lexical verbs in Marketing articles If the two most frequent uses of hedging verbs in the research papers are expressions of Writer-oriented hedges, the third most common use, Personal attribution, is one of the principal means of expressing Reader-oriented hedges. In particular, of the 79 instances of personally attributed hedges identified in the journal corpus, 57 occur with first-person subjects (e.g., “We propose that …”, “We suspect that …”), while 22 occur with a first-person possessive adjective and inanimate subject, particularly “our results suggest” and “our results indicate”. As is clear from Table 3, the three most frequent uses of Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 141 epistemic lexical verbs in the research articles constitute almost 75% of all the occurrences of lexical hedging verbs recorded in this corpus. None of these uses figures significantly in the textbook chapters. As can be seen from Table 4 below, the uses of hedging verbs that predominate in the research articles only show a handful of instances in the textbooks, with only 10 cases of hedging verbs occurring in citations to research sources, 4 with “abstract rhetors”, and two with first-person subjects. STRUCTURE Frequency per 1,000 words Percent Raw number Active declarative sentences with Phenomenal subjects 0.43 34.72 50 General references - non-research sources 0.22 18.06 26 Citations - non-research sources 0.17 13.89 20 General references - Research sources 0.10 8.33 12 Citations - Research sources 0.09 6.94 10 Passive constructions 0.09 6.94 10 Anticipatory it 0.05 4.17 6 Abstract rhetors 0.04 2.78 4 Inclusive we 0.03 2.08 3 Personal attribution 0.02 1.39 2 Existential there 0.01 0.70 1 Totals 1.25 100,00 144 Table 4 Structures with epistemic lexical verbs in Marketing textbooks Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 142 The uses of epistemic lexical verbs that occur more frequently in the textbook chapters are instead related, as is already evident from Table 4, to the real world of marketing activities and strategies, and already reveal the textbook authors’ focus on the practice of marketing - a focus that will emerge even more clearly, as we will see later, in the use of other hedging forms we have analyzed. The practical emphasis in the textbook chapters can however be already observed from the results in Table 4, which show that the three most frequent uses of hedging verbs account for almost 67% of all the cases of epistemic lexical verbs recorded in the textbook corpus, and becomes even more evident when we break down the 50 instances of hedging verbs occurring with the subjects that, using somewhat loosely MacDonald’s (1994) terminology, we have called “Phenomenal subjects”. The breakdown is given in Table 5, which shows that the two most frequent uses of epistemic lexical verbs in the textbook chapters relate to the authors’ description and explanation of various aspects of consumer behaviour and of the different actions and activities that marketers perform in the various marketing areas and functions. The two uses are followed by the authors’ definition and explanation of marketing concepts and principles, and in particular product concepts, pricing concepts, and important concepts relating to company orientations toward the marketplace, and by the authors’ description, and sometimes critical evaluation, of certain aspects of marketing tools and strategies. Also represented is a topic which in fact figures prominently in marketing textbooks, that is the impact of the Internet and other new information technologies on the business world, with attention given both to the current status and to the potential of electronic marketing. Use of epistemic lexical verbs Percent Raw totals Description and explanation of consumer behaviour 30.0 15 Explanation and/ or illustration of marketers’ activities and practices 26.0 13 Explanation of marketing concepts 20.0 10 Explanation and/ or criticism of certain aspects of marketing tools and strategies 14.0 7 Predictions about future developments in information technologies and their application to marketing strategies and tools 10.0 5 Total 100,0 50 Table 5 Uses of epistemic lexical verbs with Phenomenal subjects in Marketing textbooks Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 143 The considerable differences that the two corpora analyzed exhibit in the use of epistemic lexical verbs appear to reflect at least two dimensions of variation. One concerns the difference between the research article and the textbook genre most often pointed out in the literature, namely, as also seen above, the contrast, explicitly drawn by some authors (for example, Myers 1992), between the research article as the principal genre for the dissemination of new knowledge, in which it is important to distinguish established from new claims, to balance conviction with caution, and to present statements with deference to the views of colleagues, and the textbook, often viewed as simply the compilation of established facts, addressed to a less expert audience which requires little professional deference (see, for example, Hyland 1999; Myers 1992). The other dimension of variation relates to the distinction between a research-versus-practice orientation, already noted by some authors between the research article and other marketing genres or subgenres. For example, Hemais (2001), in her study of three leading journals in the field, distinguishes three subgenres of marketing articles: the research-oriented article, the practitioner article, and a third type, which “is a mix of the other two” (2001: 40), and which in fact she defines as “mixed” or “scholarly-applied” article. 3 The author finds that of the three types of article only the researchoriented one presents the expected focus on the discussion of theoretical issues, research methods and results, displaying a concern with the construction of concepts, methods, and hypotheses, and thus contributing to the progress of knowledge in the field. The other two subgenres, both the practitioner and the scholarly-applied articles, show a more practical orientation, the practitioner article dealing with problems related to immediate marketing activity, the scholarly-applied article combining research with application to practical situations. The predominance of the practice of marketing in the discourse of marketing journals reflects, as Hemais underlines, the practical and applied nature of marketing, which, as the author concludes, “depends heavily on insights from practice as much as, or more than, from research” (Hemais 2001: 58). The practical orientation which predominates in various marketing genres and subgenres also characterizes the marketing textbooks we have analyzed, whose primary goal, as we will also see in the use of other linguistic features we have examined, is, in fact, to lead students to a clear understanding of marketing concepts, strategies, and practices, and to advance their skills in applying this knowledge in the analysis of marketing problems and cases and in the development of marketing strategies and plans. 3 The three marketing journals examined by Hemais (2001) are Marketing Science (representing the research journal), Harvard Business Review (representing the practical journal), and Industrial Marketing Management (mixed/ scholarlyapplied). Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 144 3.2 Epistemic adverbs The practical emphasis in our textbook corpus, already clear from the use of epistemic lexical verbs, is even more evident in the use of the hedging category which occurs most frequently in the textbook chapters, that is, as we have seen in Table 1, Epistemic adverbs. We can immediately say that the most frequently employed adverb category in the textbook corpus is, as expected, that of Epistemic stance adverbs marking the limitation of a proposition, such as generally, mainly, and typically. These adverbs restrict the scope of a statement, indicating that what is said is “true or accurate within certain limits” (Hyland 1998a: 187). Moreover, following Hyland (1996a, 1998a) and Biber et al. (1999), we have also included in this group a number of adverbs of indefinite frequency, such as often and usually. Table 6 shows the results for this adverb group in the textbook corpus, together with the results for the other adverb categories investigated. The table also indicates how the different adverb groups are classified in Hyland’s (1996b, 1998a) model of hedging. More particularly, as seen in Section 2, Epistemic stance adverbs restricting the scope of a statement, Downtoners, Approximating adverbs, and Style stance adverbs are classified as Attribute hedges, which, as the author explains, “indicate the degree of precision intended and convey the sense in which an idea may be held to be true” (Hyland 1998a: 165). Reliability hedges comprise Probability adverbs, adverbs of sensory and reported evidence, such as apparently and reportedly, and adverbs expressing the sense in which the writer judges what is said to be true or false, and thus either expressing a contrast with reality (e.g., ideally, technically), or indicating that what is said is true only in principle (e.g., basically, essentially) (Quirk et al. 1985: 621). Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 145 Adverb category per 1,000 wds Percent Raw totals Epistemic stance adverbs restricting the scope of a statement a 3.09 53.53 356 Downtoners 1.59 27.52 183 Approximating adverbs 0.36 6.32 42 Style stance adverbs 0.03 0.45 3 Attribute hedges 5.07 87.82 584 Reliability adverbsb 0.70 12.18 81 Totals 5.77 100.00 665 a This category comprises group a of Epistemic stance adverbs. b This category comprises groups b, c, d of Epistemic stance adverbs. Table 6 Epistemic Adverbs in Marketing textbooks As already mentioned and can now be seen in Table 6, the most frequent adverb category in the textbook corpus is that of Epistemic stance adverbs restricting the scope of a statement, which, with 356 occurrences and a frequency of 3.09 (per 1,000 words), represent over half (and precisely 53.53%) of all the Epistemic adverbs recorded in the textbook corpus, and far outnumber the second most frequent adverb group, that is, Downtoners. The extensive use of Epistemic stance adverbs marking the limitation of a proposition appears to be another clear reflection of the practical orientation of marketing textbooks, as these adverbs in fact serve, as we will now see in Table 7, to qualify the numerous generalizations that the textbook authors make in their descriptions, explanations, illustrations of the various aspects - concepts, activities, functions, practices, processes, strategies, issues, developments - of the marketing world. Before looking at Table7, we give a simple illustration of the use of this adverb group in the textbooks, by showing two brief excerpts from two of the textbooks examined: (1) Business products are usually purchased on the basis of an organization’s goals and objectives. Generally the functional aspects of the product are more important than the psychological rewards sometimes associated with consumer products. Business products can be classified into seven categories according to their characteristics and intended uses: Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 146 installations, accessory equipment, raw materials, component parts, process materials, MRO (maintenance, repair and operating) supplies, and business services. Installations include facilities, such as office buildings, factories, and warehouses, and major equipment that are nonportable, such as production lines and very large machines. Major equipment usually is used for production purposes. Normally installations are expensive and intended to be used for a considerable length of time. Because they are so expensive and typically involve a long-term investment of capital, purchase decisions are often made by high-level management. Marketers of installations frequently must provide a variety of services, including training, repairs, maintenance assistance, and even financial assistance. (Marketing textbook 07: 307-308). (2) Buyers typically have a range of acceptable prices. They often have an upper and lower threshold or range of acceptable prices rather than only one acceptable price they are willing to pay. (Marketing textbook 06: 167). [our emphasis] In the first extract, the explanation and classification of business products and the description of marketing activities related to this product category are qualified by epistemic stance adverbs like usually, generally, typically, and frequently. In the second extract, the two adverbs typically and often qualify the authors’ explanation of an aspect of consumer behaviour. When we look at the breakdown of the uses of Epistemic stance adverbs restricting the scope of a statement as shown in Table 7, we can see, in fact, that the most frequent use, accounting for nearly half of all the instances of this group of adverbs recorded in the textbook corpus, relates to the authors’ description and explanation of marketing activities and practices. The second most common use, considerably less frequent however, relates to the authors’ description and explanation of various aspects of consumer behaviour. Other uses that occur with a certain frequency are, as can be seen in the table, the definition and explanation of marketing concepts, with particular reference to product concepts, pricing concepts, and concepts relating to the types and characteristics of marketing channels, the discussion of the various aspects of the impact of the Internet and other new information technologies on the business world, and the description and explanation of more traditional marketing tools and strategies, with the discussion not only of their importance and effectiveness but also of their limitations and of the ethical issues they raise. Less represented, but not totally absent, as can be seen in Table 7, is the use of this adverb category in the expression of the textbook authors’ advice and recommendations about correct and appropriate procedures and lines of action, a use, which in fact, as we will see below, figures prominently in the marketing textbooks, representing an important aspect of the pedagogic purpose of the textbook authors, who, in pursuing their goal of leading students to a mastery of new skills and knowledge, take care in fact, as we will Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 147 observe below, to perform both the task of providing students with a clear understating of marketing concepts, strategies, and practices and that of instructing them in the appropriate actions, behaviours, methods, and procedures in the different marketing areas and functions. USE Percent Raw totals Description and explanation of marketing activities and practices 45.79 163 Description and explanation of consumer behaviour 14.04 50 Definition and explanation of marketing concepts 11.24 40 Discussion of aspects and issues associated with the “Internet revolution” 10.96 39 Criticism of certain aspects of marketing practices and tools 8.99 32 Description and explanation of traditional marketing tools and strategies 6.74 24 Illustration of external factors negatively affecting marketing activities 1.12 4 Authors’ advice/ recommendations about correct and/ or desirable procedures and courses of action 1.12 4 Total 100.00 356 Table 7 Uses of Epistemic Stance Adverbs-Attribute hedges in Marketing textbooks 4 Concluding remarks The results reported in this study, although partial in some respects, show important differences between the two genres examined in their use of the grammatical classes expressing hedging investigated, differences which, as noted in the preceding pages, appear to reflect at least two dimensions of variation. One dimension relates, as discussed in the previous section, to the differences of purpose and audience between the two genres often pointed out in the literature, differences which, while often oversimplifying the “complexities in reader-author textbook relationships” (Swales 1995: 3), emphasize the con- Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 148 trast between the research article as the primary genre of knowledge construction, in which it is it is important to distinguish established from new claims, to balance conviction with caution, and to present statements with deference to the views of colleagues, and the textbook, often viewed as simply the compilation of uncontested formulations of disciplinary knowledge for novice students (Hyland 1999; Myers 1992). The other dimension of variation concerns the distinction between a research-versus-practice orientation, already noted by some authors, as seen in the previous section, between the research article and other marketing genres and subgenres. Other grammatical classes that we have examined in the two corpora appear to reflect these two dimensions of variation. They are in fact also particularly evident in the use of the modal auxiliaries, investigated in Calogiuri and Saracino (2012), in which we have examined the use of both Epistemic and non-Epistemic modals in the two corpora, finding numerous, significant differences between the two genres. Among them, we will remember, at least, the higher frequency of Epistemic modal verbs expressing hedging in the journal corpus and the considerably greater use of Root modals in the textbook chapters, where, in fact, the most frequent modal verbs are can and the modals of obligation - both expressing modal meanings which perfectly serve the textbook authors’ pedagogic purpose of leading students to a mastery of new skills and knowledge: the modal can enabling them to describe and explain to students all they consider important in relation to the activities, strategies, practices, concepts, methods, and developments in the field; the modals of obligation allowing them both to describe the different activities that marketers, marketing managers, firms, companies must/ have to/ need to perform in the various marketing areas and functions, and to give their advice, suggestions, and recommendations about correct and/ or desirable procedures and courses of action, with particular reference to the correct ways of performing activities, making decisions, designing strategies, and developing and implementing programs in the different marketing areas and functions. The results obtained from our analysis so far do not appear, then, to alleviate the concern over the problematic role of textbooks in the students’ acquisition of a specialized literacy, and, in fact, seem to indicate that in the case of marketing genres the problems may be further compounded by the very different orientations to market activity that textbooks and research articles show, and by what we may call with Hemais (2001) separate discourses in terms of abstraction and concreteness. On a more general level, the characteristic features of the marketing textbooks that the results of the analysis reveal appear to provide further support for the view that the textbook genre may exhibit greater disciplinary variation than other academic genres (see, for example, Bhatia 1999, 2004; Hyland 1999, 2000), and that further research is needed to increase our understanding of the differences in the disciplinary and generic practices of textbook writers Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 149 and of the aspects of language use that contribute to the rhetorical distinctiveness of the textbook genre. References Bhatia, V. K. (1999). Disciplinary variation in Business English. In Hewings M., and Nickerson, C.(eds.), Business English: Research into Practice. Harlow: Longman, 129-143. Bhatia, V. K. (2004).Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-based View. Lon don: Continuum. Biber, D., Johansson, S., Leech, G., Conrad, S. and Finegan, E. (1999). Longman Grammar of Spoken and Written English. London: Longman. Calogiuri, A. and Saracino, G.M. (2012). Modal verbs in Marketing research articles and introductory textbooks. In Chiavetta, E. and Sciarrino, S. (eds.), The Popularization of Botanical, Legal and Commercial Language. Roma: XL edizioni, 99-138. Coates, J. (1983). The Semantics of the Modal Auxiliaries. London: Croom Helm. Halloran, S. M. (1984). The birth of molecular biology: An essay in the rhetorical criticism of scientific discourse. Rhetoric Review 3, 70-83. Reprinted in Harris, R.A. (1997), Landmark Essays on the Rhetoric of Science: Case Studies. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 39-50. Hemais, B. (2001). The discourse of research and practice in marketing journals. English for Specific Purposes 20, 39-59. Holmes, J. (1988). Doubt and certainty in ESL textbooks. Applied Linguistics 9, 21-44. Hyland, K. (1996a). Talking to the academy: Forms of hedging in science research articles. Written Communication 13, 251-281. Hyland, K. (1996b). Writing without conviction? Hedging in science research articles. Applied Linguistics 17, 433-454. Hyland, K. (1998a). Hedging in Scientific Research Articles. Amsterdam: John Benjamins. Hyland, K. (1998b). Boosting, hedging and the negotiation of academic knowledge. Text 18, 349-382. Hyland, K. (1999). Talking to students: Metadiscourse in introductory coursebooks. English for Specific Purposes 18, 3-26. Hyland, K. (2000). Disciplinary Discourses: Social Interactions in Academic Writing. London: Longman. Hyland, K. (2002). Activity and evaluation: Reporting practices in academic writing. In J. Flowerdew (ed.), Academic Discourse. London: Pearson Education, 115-130. Hyland, K. (2005). Metadiscourse: Exploring Interaction in Writing. London: Continuum. Hyland, K. (2009). Academic Discourse. English in a Global Context. London: Continuum. Hyland, K. and Milton, J. (1997). Qualification and certainty in L1 and L2 students’ writing. Journal of Second Language Writing 6, 183-205. Leech, G. (1987). Meaning and the English Verb. London: Longman. Antonella Calogiuri, Grazia Marisa Saracino 150 Leech, G. and J. Svartvik (1994). A Communicative Grammar of English, 2nd edition. London: Longman. Love, A. (1991). Process and product in geology: An investigation of some discourse features of two introductory textbooks. English for Specific Purposes 10, 89-109. Love, A. (2002). Introductory concepts and ‘cutting edge’ theories: Can the genre of the textbook accommodate both? In Flowerdew, J. (ed.), Academic Discourse. London: Pearson Education, 76-91. Love, A. (2003). Introductory textbooks and disciplinary acculturation: A case study from social anthropology. In Hewings, M. (ed.), Academic Writing in Context. Implications and Applications. London: Continuum, 122-139. MacDonald, S. P. (1994). Professional Academic Writing in the Humanities and Social Sciences. Carbondale: Southern Illinois Press. Myers, G. (1992). Textbooks and the sociology of scientific knowledge. English for Specific Purposes 11, 3-17. Nash, W. (1990). Introduction: The stuff these people write. In W. Nash (ed.), The Writing Scholar. Studies in Academic Discourse. Newbury Park, London: Sage, 8-30. Palmer, F. R. (1986). Mood and Modality, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Palmer, F. R. (1990). Modality and the English Modals. 2nd edition, London: Longman. Powell, M. (1985). Purposive vagueness: An evaluation dimension of vague quantifying expressions. Journal of Linguistics 21, 31-50. Prince, E., Frader, J.and Bosk, C. (1982). ‘On hedging in physician-physician discourse’, in Di Pietro, R.J. (ed.), Linguistics and the Professions. Norwood, NJ: Ablex, 83-97. Quirk, R., Greenbaum, S., Leech, G. and Svartvik, J. (1985). A Comprehensive Grammar of the English Language. London: Longman. Rounds, P. L. (1982).Hedging in Written Academic Discourse: Precision and Flexibility. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan. Shaw, P. (1992). Reasons for the correlation of voice, tense, and sentence function in reporting verbs. Applied Linguistics 13, 302-319. Swales, J. M. (1990).Genre Analysis: English in Academic and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Swales, J. M. (1995). The role of the textbook in EAP writing research. English for Specific Purposes 14, 3-18. Swales, J. M. (2004).Research Genres: Explorations and Applications. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Thomas, S. and Hawes, T.P. (1994). Reporting verbs in medical journal articles. English for Specific Purposes13, 129-148. Thompson, G. and Ye, Y. (1991). Evaluation in the reporting verbs used in academic papers. Applied Linguistics 12, 365-382. Hedging in Marketing Research Articles and Introductory Textbooks 151 Appendix: Textbook and Journal Corpus Textbooks Boone, L. E. and Kurtz, D.L. (2008).Contemporary Marketing (14 th ed.). Mason OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Grewal, D. and Levy, M. (2008).Marketing(2nd ed.). New York, NY: McGraw- Hill/ Irwin. Kotler, P. and Keller, K.L. (2009) Marketing Management (13 th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall. Lamb, C. W., Hair, J.F., and McDaniel, C. (2008).Marketing(10th ed.). Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning. Mullins, J. W. and Walker, O.C. Jr. (2008). Marketing Management: A Strategic Decision-Making Approach (7 th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/ Irwin. Peter, J. P. and Donnelly, J.H. Jr. (2009).Marketing Management (9 th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill/ Irwin. Pride, W. M. and O. C. Ferrell, O.C. (2008). Marketing (14 th ed.). Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company. Solomon, M. R., Marshall, G.W. and Stuart E.W. (2008). Marketing: Real People, Real Choices (6 th ed.), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall. Journals Journal of Marketing Journal of Marketing Research Marketing Science Journal of Retailing Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science International Journal of Research in Marketing Journal of Consumer Research Journal of Service Research The Sociability of Learning in the Botanical Writings of Priscilla Wakefield Eleonora Chiavetta (University of Palermo, Italy) 1 Introductory remarks Women’s science writing in the Early Modern era raises issues about authorship and popularization, but also about generic choices in a period when scientific disciplines were being shaped (Shteir 2003: 152). There are questions to be answered concerning the forms women used when writing about science and also the rhetorical traditions they followed. This paper focuses on educational books written for a juvenile and female readership in the final decades of the 18 th century and in the first decades of the 19 th century. The publication of Rousseau’s Emile in 1762 had reinforced a new notion of childhood and “provoked a number of women to write books on girls’ education challenging the idea that an education based on “ornamental accomplishments” was essential if a girl was to marry successfully” (Hill 1997: 4). The need for books suitable for the better education of children and girls was answered by women authors such as Mary Wollstonecraft, Maria Edgeworth, and Priscilla Wakefield. These educational authors “devised fictional settings to engage their pupils’ interest in scientific knowledge, and scientific arguments were often conducted through rhetorical strategies” (Fara 2008: 18). They popularized scientific issues at a time when there was a greater awareness and understanding of such matters, as well as a more widespread interest in science or ‘natural philosophy’, as it was called at the time. These books contributed to the application of scientific theory and practice to the daily life of the household. At the same time, as they were written by women and often addressed other women, they marked a change in the readership profile and in perception of the authors’ authority. These authors made personal generic choices adopting a ‘chatty’ style, and they revolutionized traditional didactic device “by placing women instead of men in the position of authority” (Fara 2008: 19). I will here introduce the work of Priscilla Wakefield (1750-1832), a woman who started writing educational books to overcome the financial difficulties of her household Although she is mainly known today for her Reflections on the Present Condition ofthe Female Sex (1798), in her own time, she became one of the most successful popularisers of scientific matters for women and children. She also contributed to promoting Linnaeus’s controversial classification in Britain. Eleonora Chiavetta 154 2 The agreeability of learning The agreeability of learning was one of the key features of the dissemination of scientific knowledge in the age of the Enlightenment. Clarity and graduality were also fundamental elements in writing scientific books whose main objective was to instruct potential students who might be without a previous educational training. This applied without differentiation to men, women and young people. ‘Rational entertainment’, that is combining learning with pleasure, was the main education principle of the period. The following quotation explains this concept very clearly: Instruction should always be rendered agreeable, in order to be beneficial to those that are to learn. The skill of a preceptor consists in gaining the affections of his pupils, and conveying knowledge in so gradual and clear a manner, as to adapt it to the strength of the young student’s capacity. Many a poor child has been disgusted with books and learning, by the heavy laborious tasks that have been given to him to learn by heart, before he was capable of understanding them. The spirit of improvement, that distinguishes this enlightened age, shines in nothing more conspicuously than in education. Persons of genius have not thought it unworthy of their talents to compose books purposely for the instruction of the infant mind, and various ingenious methods of facilitating the acquisition of knowledge have been invented. (Wakefield 1794: 119) (my emphasis) This passage comes from Mental Improvement: or The Beauties and Wonders of Nature and Art, a text written by Priscilla Wakefield in 1794, dealing with a wide range of scientific topics, from cod-fishery to Galileo’s and Herschel’s telescopes. Priscilla Wakefield was a daughter of the Enlightenment and believed in the importance of children’s learning and in the possibility of improving the conditions of women of all classes by enhancing their education. Science would play a considerable role in this process of enhancement, since “science learning was part of general and polite culture” (Shteir 1996: 2). Indeed, “Fashion, commerce and social values” had “put science on the list of the culturally approved activities” (ibid.) for women. Learning about scientific domains - astronomy, chemistry, geography etc - was seen as an antidote to idleness and frivolity. Moreover, it was thought that acquiring a general scientific knowledge would make women better conversationalists (with their future husbands) and better mothers/ educators. Priscilla Wakefield’s Enlightenment faith in improvement, therefore, combined with other cultural values such as sociability which made “popular science activities fashionable in eighteenth-century England” (Shteir 2003: 154). The sociability of learning is expressed by her generic choices of familiar formats, such as dialogues and letters. Mental Improvement, for example, was The Sociability of Learning in the Botanical Writings of Priscilla Wakefield 155 shaped as “a series of instructive conversations” between two parents and their children. The choice of the dialogue for educational purposes is explained by the author in her preface where she states that this form “is best suited to convey instruction blended with amusement” (Wakefield 1794: 3). The use of dialogues and conversations in a philosophical, literary or scientific text was by no means new. We just have to think of Plato’s dialogues, in the domain of philosophy, or of Galileo’s Dialogo sopra i due massimi sistemi del mondo (1632)[Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems]or of Robert Boyle’s The Sceptical Chymist: or Chymico-Physical Doubts & Paradoxes (1661). In the case of Wakefield and other authors of the time, the choice of the dialogue as a popularizing genre, can be linked to the role played by conversation in 17 th and 18 th century England for wealthy female aristocrats, who were not allowed to enter the academic world, and thus transformed their mansions into salons, discussion centres where intellectuals from every part of Europe debated philosophical and scientific issues. The 18 th century Bluestocking ladies in London present another example of intellectual women’s discussion groups: “the machinery of the club was a self-elected number of hostesses, who entertained their friends as and when they pleased, with the addition in some cases of as many ‘lions’ as were willing to be exhibited” (Scott 1947: 12). The qualification for membership was “a love for letters or any form of art, whether exhibited in performance or not” (ibid.). Conversation belonged to the culture of sociability which was “deeply rooted in Enlightenment thought” and was strongly associated with politeness. Polite sociable science implied the use of the familiar format of a dialogue which was supposed to involve the reader in the topic, without too many technical terms (George & Martin 2011: 4) An important source of inspiration for Wakefield and other authors of the time was the way the old model of conversation had been used by the French scientist and man of letters, Bernard de Fontenelle, whose Entretiens sur la pluralité des Mondes (1686), translated into English by Aphra Behnin 1688, had been very successful in showing how accessible the newest scientific theories, especially Cartesian ones, could be. Fontenelle’s work had been specifically written to satisfy the curiosity of scientifically-minded women of his time, and his dialogues are between a beautiful “Madame the Marquise” and a young, often flirtatious male scientist. His book inspired many texts in the 18 th century targeted at a female readership interested in scientific topics, such as the best-sellers Astronomical Dialogues between a Gentleman and a Lady (1719) by John Harris and Il newtonianismo per le dame (1737) by Francesco Algarotti, which was translated as Newtonianism for Ladies by the Bluestocking Elizabeth Carter in 1739. The dialogue, as used by women authors, marks a belief in a more familiar and intimate way of conveying knowledge, emphasizing in the case of Wakefield’s work, the importance of the family as a vital centre of education, and of home-based science education and activities. These concepts are reinforced Eleonora Chiavetta 156 in other books by Wakefield, as inLeisure Hours: or Entertaining Dialogues, between Persons Eminent for Virtue and Magnanimity. The Characters Drawn from Ancient and Modern History (1805), in which there are forty-one dialogues between historical characters of the past. In Domestic Recreation or Dialogues Illustrative of Natural and Scientific Subjects (1805) the dialogues are between a ‘well informed’ mother and her two daughters. The dialogues always begin with a question or a request by one of the daughters about various subjects (insects, meteors, sea anemones, singing of birds, progress of civilization, society and art etc.). As stated in the Preface, the subjects are such as are likely to have arisen in a family accustomed to observe with attention the objects around them; and […] are adapted to cultivate a love for the works of nature, and habit of reflection. (Wakefield 1805: v-vi) (my emphasis) Through this familiar mode, Wakefield was not only popularizing scientific topics, she was also disseminating scientific principles, such as observation and personal experimentation, as promoted by Bacon and the Royal Society. She washence shaping a new generation whichwas taught in an inductive way how to conduct scientific experiments. Because of her formative aims, Wakefield also incorporated moral and religious issues, and the “love for the works of nature” which she expressed was designed to lead to an appreciation of God’s creation. Wakefield also wrote one text specifically earmarked for a female audience concerning the domain of botany, An Introduction to Botany, in a Series of Familiar Letters (1796). Botany was considered particularly suitable for women and Queen Charlotte offered a royal model since she regularly botanised with her daughters. Women had worked with plants in the herbal tradition for medical practices in earlier times, but now a new refined culture of botanical art took place and became more and more fashionable, not only with aristocrats but also with the middle classes. Botanising was seen as a home amusement which combined the enjoyment of scientific knowledge with healthy exercise in the open air. Women, always metaphorically associated with flowers, could collect, draw and embroider plants and also write about them. All these activities were gender-coded as feminine. In fact, Wakefield’s was the first botany book written by a woman to offer a systematic introduction to the science. In her preface the author introduces the advantages of studying botany, as well as the motivation that led her to write her little book which was to eliminate the difficulties previous botanical books had presented to unlearned readers. She also indicates how she is going to make the topic more accessible: Botany is a branch of Natural History that possesses many advantages; it contributes to health of body and cheerfulness of disposition, by pre- The Sociability of Learning in the Botanical Writings of Priscilla Wakefield 157 senting an inducement to take air and exercise; it is adapted to the simplest capacity, and the objects of its investigation offer themselves without expense or difficulty, which renders them attainable to every rank of life; but with all these allurements, till of late years, it has been confined to the circle of the learned, which may be attributed to those books that treated of it, being principally written in Latin: a difficulty that deterred many, particularly the female sex, from attempting to obtain the knowledge of a science, thus defended, as it were, from their approach. Much is due to those of our countrymen, who first introduced this delightful volume of nature to popular notice, by preferring it in our native language; their labours have been a means of rendering it very generally studied, and it is now considered as a necessary addition to an accomplished education. May it become a substitute for some of the trifling, not be say pernicious, objects, that too frequently occupy the leisure of young ladies of fashionable manners, and, by employing their faculties rationally, act as an antidote to levity and idleness. As there are many admirable English books now extant upon the subject, it may require some apology for obtruding the present work upon the public. It appeared that every thing hitherto published, was too expensive, as well as too diffuse and scientific, for the purpose of teaching the elementary parts to children or young persons; it was therefore thought, that a book of a moderate price, and divested as much as possible of technical terms, introduced in an easy familiar form, might be acceptable .(Wakefield 1796 : v) (my emphasis) Once again Wakefield chose to set her writing within a familial context, using a narrative form in a fictional setting. The text is shaped as the correspondence between two teenage sisters - Felicia and Constance. While Constance is visiting her aunt, Felicia who has been left at home is taught botany presented as a useful amusement. Felicia decides to narrate what she is learning to her absent sister, thus sharing her acquired knowledge and competence with her. In her letters she transforms the formal teaching she is receiving from her governess into simpler direct communications. In fact, her twenty-seven letters provide a clear exposition of Linnaeus’s classes, orders and genera. Consistent with her belief in a ‘polite science’, Wakefield avoids scientific terms, using common names for plants and putting botanical nomenclature in footnotes. There are also some drawings, which are explained at the end of the book, where the scientific terms are also further explained. Letter writing was very successful as a literary genre in 17 th and 18 th century Europe and France. We just have to think of Aphra Behn’sLove-Letters Between a Nobleman and His Sister, which appeared in three volumes in 1684, 1685, and 1687, of Rousseau’s Julie, ou la nouvelle Héloïse(1761), of Richardson’s Pamela (1740) and Clarissa (1749), or of Goethe’s Die Leiden des jungen Werthers (1774). The use of an epistolary exchange in popular science writings shows Eleonora Chiavetta 158 how the gap between literature and ‘natural philosophy’ was not very wide in those days and demonstrates that a genre could be used equally effectively in various domains and with various objectives - to instruct, to educate, to provide enjoyment - what mattered was the achievement of the final goal of involving the reader. In choosing the letter as a genre, Wakefield was in fact influenced by the significant example of Martyn’s Letters on the Elements of Botany Addressed to a Lady (1785), which was a translation of Rousseau’s Lettres elementaires sur la botanique (1771-73), written for Madame Delessert, “offering guidance to a young mother over the instruction in botany of her daughter” (George 2011: 13). Rousseau’s writing is also an example of the use of the same genre in the two fields of ‘literature’ and ‘science’. Both Wakefield’s and Rousseau’s texts popularized the Linnaean system through a series of letters, insisted on the importance of direct observation, had a botanical tutor (a woman in Wakefield’s case) and provided an example of knowledge exchange between females. Both texts insist on the importance of sharing knowledge, where book learning is rejected. Botany is not to be carried out in isolation, but is a social and sociable activity, as the following passage underlines: The further I advance in my new study, the more pleasure I take in it, and should value it as an important addition to the number of my innocent enjoyments, if partaken with you, my beloved Constance. Though far separated from each other, I am still desirous of associating with you as much as the mode of communication will permit, in the delight I feel in examining pointals and stamens. (Wakefield 1796: 17) (my emphasis) Wakefield’s Introduction was so popular in her time that it was translated into French by Octave Ségur (1778-1818), with the title Flore des jeunes personnes, in 1801. The French translation was as popular in France as the original English in England. 1 In the Introduction to Botany, we can also notice a change in Wakefield’s approach to the process of disseminating knowledge. In her other educational books, there was a precise divide between the ignorant children and the educated parents; knowledge was provided with an upward/ downward movement, also implying a divide between older and younger generations. In this botany book, instead of having a straight line of communication with an older educated tutor - the governess - at the top as a sender of information and a young learner - Felicia - at the bottom, as a receiver, we have a triangle, where the governess should be at the top, and the two sisters at the bottom equally. But since we never hear the voice of the governess directly, but only through 1 On the relevant role played by Flore des jeunes personnes in France and the differences between the English original and its French translation, see Alison E. Martin, “Revolutions in Botany: Nation, Gender and Education in the French Translation of Priscilla Wakefield’s Introduction to Botany (1796)”, in Journal of Literature and Science, Volume 4. N.1, pp 30-43. The Sociability of Learning in the Botanical Writings of Priscilla Wakefield 159 Felicia’s personal reporting, what we really have is Felicia as a mediator of knowledge, who positions herself between a popularizing expert and a totally ignorant learner as a learner / expert-to-be. It could be saidthat this inclusion of a go-between presents a new simplifying version of popularization. All the letters are written by Felicia and they apparently fall within the category of personal familiar letters, since the correspondence is between two sisters, there are repeated expressions of how much Felicia misses the company of Constance and enjoys writing to her; there are references to members of the family, to the home setting and to the girls’ shared habits. However, the letters are only a framework for what is really an introductory textbook. The botanical explanations contained in the letters are thus gently introduced within the context of the affective connection between the two girls.The intertextual links between one letter and the other, with references to past letters or anticipations of future ones, are also part of the discursive practice of the genre, but Wakefield exploits these links to transform the individual letters into a connected series of didactic units, which in the end will form a useful handbook. The following quotations exemplify this strategic use: Recall to your mind, my dear Constance, what I formerly told you of the compound flowers described in the system of Lynnaeus, in the general account of the nineteenth class, Syngenefia. (Wakefield 1796: 131). My letter is already spun out to a tedious length, I must, therefore, reserve the description of the fructification till a future opportunity. - Adieu: your FELICIA. (Wakefield 1796: 9). I have been in no haste to burden you, my dear Constance, with another letter, till I thought that I have given you time for digesting the last, the subject of which is too important to the science in which you are engaged, to be slightly passed over. When you find yourself perfect in your knowledge of the classes, or larger divisions, this letter is intended to supply you with fresh employment, by making the distinctions of the orders that compose them (Wakefield 1796: 38). Thus, my dear sister, I have gone through all the classes, superficially indeed, but perhaps sufficiently diffuse to give you a taste for my favourite pursuit, which is every thing I had in view when I began this correspondence, to which your return next week will put an agreeable termination; I shall rejoice to resign my office of instructress to my dear Mrs. Snelgrove, who united with my mother and me in impatiently wishing for the day, that shall restore beloved Constance to her affectionate FELICIA. (Wakefield 1796: 167). Eleonora Chiavetta 160 Wakefield’s Introduction is hence a good example of how “a text […] is to be regarded as on ongoing process of negotiation”, as stated by Bhatia (1993) “in the context of issues like social roles, group purposes, professional and organizational preferences and prerequisites, and even cultural constraints”(1993: 18). Moreover, the flexibility through which the genre of letter writing is used as a didactic instrument, testifies to the continuous transformation of genres and of genre hybridization (Bhatia 2004). Although it is a one-sided exchange, the letters have a conversation flavour as Constance’s replies can be inferred from what Felicia says in her own letters, as shown in the following example: It is with renewed pleasure I devote the present half hour to your service, since you assure me, that my letters contribute to your amusement, and that you pursue the same object, that occupies me daily, from the hints I have given you. (Wakefield 1796: 22) (my emphasis) Letters are another way of conversing, after all, and Felicia often expresses the similarity of the two genres, as in Dear Constance, With pleasure do I retire from other company, to devote an hour to the agreeable employment of chatting with you, and renewing botanical topics. Suppose me seated in our dressing room, with many specimens before me of the class Tetradynamia, which is known by the same number of stamens as the fifth class, in which they are all nearly of equal length[…]. (Wakefield 1796: 113). (my emphasis) The familiar format of the letter she had chosen turned out to be particularly useful to popularize Linnaeus’s classification system in Britain. Just as in other scientific realms, the need for a formal clarification of plantswas now felt. This brought to the request of a proper classification of plants: hierarchies were required in the natural world mirroring the social hierarchies which were considered fundamental to maintain political and social stability. The publication of Systema Naturae(1735) and of Species Plantarum (1753) by the Swede Karl von Linné or Carolus Linnaeus was the solution. Linnaeus’s taxonomy provided a hierarchical system - based on genera, families etc - through a classification which was relatively simple and easy to understand and explain, since it was based on counting male stamens and female pistils. Linnaeus “also reduced the long descriptive labels for plants to two names only, genus and species”(George & Martin 2011: 2). However, Linnaeus’s classification was controversial because he transferred human relationships, such as marriage and adulterous relationships, to the world of plants. His classification was based on reproductive organs, and the metaphors he used were sexually connoted: if the metaphor of ‘bride’ and ‘groom’, of ‘bridal beds’ and ‘nuptials’ were acceptable, things became much less acceptable, when he described plants with more partners, since they had more than one pistil or stamen. Such metaphors and the concepts suggested by his sexual language were con- The Sociability of Learning in the Botanical Writings of Priscilla Wakefield 161 sidered inappropriate for a female mind. The concept of polite science was at odds with his sexual descriptors. Although the need for a simple classification was strongly felt, and what Linnaeus proposed was clear enough, still it seemed quite subversive for the salons of the time. The popularization of Linnaeus in England passed through books such as those of Priscilla Wakefield. Her text, An Introduction to Botany, in a Series of Familiar Letters (1796)contributed to the popularization of Linnaeus’s classification, showing how taxonomy was useful to learn the “regularity in most of nature’s work” (Wakefield 1796: 32) and to approach pleasantly the so far intricate world of botany. She showed that this was not dangerous for a female reader, who would focus her attention on simple classification and plant collecting. Wakefield avoided the problem of the potentially disturbing sexual metaphors in Linnaeus’s taxonomy by simply eliminating them, referring to other more acceptable metaphors. See, for example, the way she introduces the world of classes and genera, where she exploits the similes of human social hierarchies: Let us endeavour to attain a clearer idea of Classes, Orders, &c. by comparing them with the general divisions of the inhabitants of the earth. Vegetables resemble Man, Classes Nations of Men, Orders, Tribes, or Divisions of Nations, Genera, the Families that compose the Tribes, Species, Individuals of which families consist, Varieties, Individuals under different appearances. (Wakefield 1796: 29) Moreover, she would underline the usefulness of the method, introducing it as the simplest and most accessible of all the classification systems so far proposed. Her explicit appreciation of Linnaeus as a scientist and of his method, as shown in the following passage that nothing might be left undone, Linnaeus, the great master of method and arrangement, to render the acquisition of his favourite science easy, he has divided the orders, when numerous, into several divisions, each including one or more genera, which is a means of diminishing the pupil’s labour (Wakefield 1796: 44). (my emphasis) parallels those of personal conduct lessons, in which patience, humility, and appropriate behaviour are recommended, as expressed in the following extract: Do not think, dear sister, that I am capable of methodizing so accurately, without the kind assistance of one, who superintends my letters, and points out what I should write; it is not necessary to say, that Mrs. Snelgrove [the governess] is that attentive affectionate friend, who will not allow me to do any thing without some degree of regularity. (Wakefield 1796: 29) Eleonora Chiavetta 162 Moreover, there are recurrent religious notes such as the following one, which would reassure the readers (women and their families) that no provocative messages were encoded and suggested. People with a scientific curiosity towards the world of botany are thus […] persons of true taste and observation, who clearly perceive the traces of Infinite Wisdom and Intelligence in the structures of every leaf and every blossom. (Wakefield 1796: 43) In such a way, Priscilla Wakefield showed how the ‘dangers’ of the sexual order could be avoided, absolutely ignored, for the good cause of disseminating the knowledge of a sound system. 3 Concluding remarks As Myers underlines “popularizations do not simply transmit or water down the writing of professionals, they transform scientific knowledge as they put it in new textual forms and relate it to other elements of non-scientific culture” (1989: 171). Like other educated women of her time, Priscilla Wakefield made an important contribution towards popularizing science and constructing (gendered) role models. She then provides a good example of how the most popular literary models of the period - dialogues and letters - were used to popularize scientific matters within the Enlightenment context of politeness and sociability . “Her familiar format, with its domestic setting and familial cast of characters, authorizes female scientific curiosity.[…]Wakefield made the letter a narrative vehicle for intellectual self-improvement in An Introduction to Botany, and her book models pleasure in knowledge” (Shteir 1996: 88).We see a process of “domestication of natural philosophy”, a metaphor “used by Fontenelle, referred to the transfer of knowledge from the secluded space of its production to the civilized space of its public consumption. The transfer was successful only when philosophical knowledge could be reshaped in the forms of genteel conversation” (Mazzotti 2004: 131-132). Wakefieldreinforced the importance of family-based education in the hands of an educated mother (or governess under the supervision of a mother). Through her letters not only does she create the image of an entire female household interested in botany - mother/ governess/ Felicia/ Constance - but also underlines how women can be active participants in the scientific world. The character of Felicia (but also Constance) functions as a rhetorical device to represent certain attitudes that it was considered women should have. By adapting familiar literary genres to a new didactic and scientific purpose, and by focusing on the education of young women, Wakefield was indeed an innovator. Through her writings, sophisticated concepts and information were transferred to a new audience in an agreeable and readily understood man- The Sociability of Learning in the Botanical Writings of Priscilla Wakefield 163 ner.No abstract thinking is involved as it was not a way of thought deemed to be feminine. However, by insisting on other qualities such as personal observation and experimentation, on the ability of applying theory to practice, Priscilla Wakefield contributed to the creation of the character of a scientifically-oriented woman who was able to use a microscope or to dissect a flower, in order to classify it. References Bhatia V. K. (2004). Worlds of Written Discourse. London & New York: Continuum. Bhatia V. K.(1993). Analysing genre -Language Use in Professional Settings. London: Longman. Bryson B. (ed) (2010). Seeing Further. The Story of Science & the Royal Society.London: Harper Press. Fara P. (2004). Pandora’s Breeches. Women, Science & Power in the Enlightenment. London: Pimlico. Fara P. (2008). Educating Mary: Women and Scientific Literature in the Early Nineteenth Century. In Knellwolf C. and Goodall J. (eds). Frankenstein’s Science. Experimentation and Discovery in Romantic Culture, 1780-1830. Farnham: Ashgate, 17-32. George S. (2005). Linnaeus in Letters and the Cultivation of the Female Mind: ‘Botany in an English Dress. In British Journal for Eighteenth-Century Studies, 28, N.1, 1-18. George S.(2007). Botany, sexuality and women’s writing 1760-1830.Manchester and New York: Manchester University Press. George S. (2011). Epistolary Exchange : the Familiar Letter and the Female Botanist, 1760-1820. In Journal of Literature and Science Volume 4. N.1, pp 12-29. George S. and Martin A. E. (2011). Botanising Women: Transmission, Translation and European Exchange. In Journal of Literature and Science Volume 4. N.1, pp 1-11. Hill B. (1997). Priscilla Wakefield as a Writer of Children’s Educational Books. In Women’s Writing Volume 4, N,13-14. Martin A. E., Revolutions in Botany: Nation, Gender and Education in the French Translation of Priscilla Wakefield’s Introduction to Botany (1796). In Journal of Literature and Science Volume 4. N.1, 30-43. Mazzotti M. (2004). Newton for Ladies: gentility, gender and radical culture. In BJHS, British Society for the History of Science 37 (2), 119-146. Myers G. (1989). Science for women and children: the dialogue of popular science in the nineteenth century. In Christie J. and Shuttleworth S. (eds). Nature Transfigured: Science and Literature 1700-1900, Manchester, 171-200 Phillips P. (1990). The Scientific Lady. A Social History of Women’s Scientific Interests. 1520-1948. London: Weidenfelf and Nicolson. Rédey S. (2006). Science for the Public -The Dimensions of Science Communication. In Tudomány - Kommunikáció - Társadalom. Budapest, 75- 82. Scott W. (1947). The Bluestocking Ladies.London: John Green & Co. Shteir A. B. (1996). Cultivating Women, Cultivating Science, Baltimore and London: The John Hopkins University Press. Eleonora Chiavetta 164 Shteir A. B. (1997). Gender and “Modern” Botany in Victorian England. in Osiris Vol. 12, The University of Chicago Press, 29-38. Shteir A. B. (2003). Finding Phoebe: A Literary History of Women’s Science Writing. In Binhammer K. and Wood J. (eds). Women and Literary History. Delaware, Newark: University of Delaware Press. Wakefield P. (1796). An Introduction to Botany in a Series of Familiar Letters.Dublin: Thomas Burnside. Wakefield P.1974 [1798]. Reflections on the Present Conditions of the Female Sex.New York and London: Garland Publishing. Wakefield P.(1794).Mental Improvement: or The Beauties and Wonders of Nature and Art, London, Darton and Harvey. Wakefield P. (1995).Mental Improvement, edited with Introduction and Notes by Ann B. Shteir. East Lansing: Colleagues Press. Wakefield P. (1805). Domestic Recreation or Dialogues illustrative of Natural and Scientific Subjects. London: Darton and Harvey. The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type Susan Kermas (University of Salento, Italy) 1 Introduction Botany, as a discipline, is rather complex since it addresses not only the botanist, phytopharmacist and doctor but also the agricultural labourer, the gardener and anyone interested in alternative medicine. Botanical texts, therefore, are multi-functional genres addressing a broad knowledge community of experts and non-experts. Herbals are particularly interesting from a sociocultural viewpoint since they contain a vast array of information useful to the physician, the gardener and housekeeper. Since authors of early herbals knew that most people could not afford to see a doctor, their works were of extreme importance and circulated widely. Content-wise they provided important information for the recognition and propagation of plants as indeed for their preparation since most treatments were prepared at home. By and large, with the development of modern medicine herbals gradually fell into decline and today such texts are read simply out of curiosity for the descriptions and illustrations of quaint plants and the related folklore. Nonetheless, by examining herbals from the 16th to the 21st century it is also possible to perceive the gradual specialization of the text type and to trace the gradual development of medicine and botany as separate sciences. 2 Aims and method The aim of this contribution is to throw light on two lines of development. On the one hand it will show how the herbal has shifted from an encyclopedic work addressed to expert horticulturalists, doctors, housekeepers and gardeners to a more general text aimed at a readership interested in plants for their own sake. On the other, it will trace its development into a more specific herbal used in alternative medicine. It will examine a selection of herbals published between the 16th and the 21st centuries and will explore the texts from a multi-perspective model of discourse analysis (Bhatia 2004: 18). It will investigate the texts from both a discursive and lexical viewpoint in order to pinpoint features providing evidence for the gradual specialization of the text type. Since this search also endeavours to give insight into the shifting priorities of botanists and the changing course of botany as a science the general aims of the herbalist as set out in the prefaces will also be given due attention. In particular, references to God and the Creation and earlier authorities will be evaluated as indeed the Susan Kermas 166 impact of the herbalists’ scientific approach both on their relationship with their audience and on their discourse practices. This investigation will basically consider genre within its socio-cognitive space. It will pay attention to textual organization and features as indeed changing social practices, especially those related to the development of the botanist from a professional viewpoint. 3 The herbalist and his readership Herbals were extremely popular in the 16th and 17th centuries and addressed both intellectuals and people interested in the practical running of the home. Gerard’s herbal was no exception. He states in the preface that it addresses the ‘careful nursing mother’ as indeed anyone caring for the household and we also know from the epistle dedicatory to Sir William Cecil Knight that one of his prime concerns is to please aristocrats wanting practical advice for their gardens and yearning to know more about botanical discoveries. Gerard’s herbal is particularly exhaustive; it contains recipes, tips for bread-making and food conservation, useful information about the properties of plants and their use in perfumery and medicine as well as instructions for the gardener. It is also culturally appealing because it includes myths and legends surrounding each plant, as indeed information about the countries of origin and even historical information such as the exploitation of slaves in the grinding of sugar cane 1 . Though he describes plants growing in Britain one of his prime concerns as superintendent of gardens of famous people is to embellish their gardens with herbs and flowers that can be adapted to the English climate and habitat and includes information about his own personal experiments with plants such as sugar cane which neither he nor gardeners in the Flanders had managed to cultivate due to the cold climate (1597: 35). His inclusion of plants such as tobacco and the Indian cress from the Americas and tips for the preparation of recently introduced plants such as the Virginian potato and the sunflower (1597: 286) prove that his herbal goes beyond the original translation of Rembert Dodoen’s Pemptades (1583) and l’Obel’s Adversaria (1571) his work is based on. Gerard speaks of plants, English and foreign, in the preface. Though he does not make the distinction between wild and cultivated in either the epistle dedicatory or the preface to the readers, he includes plants cultivated in gardens as well as wild species of poppy and anemone, for example. Culpeper’s herbal (1653) privileges the medicinal use of herbs. Like Gerard, he supplies ample descriptions of plants, informs the reader where and when they can be found and how they can be used in treating disease but instructions regarding their cultivation are wanting. As an apothecary, Cul- 1 He says that “in some places they use a great wheele, wherein slaves do tread and walke, as dogs do in turning the spit” (1597: 35). The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 167 peper primarily addresses anyone concerned with healthcare as indeed anyone wishing “to begin the study of Physic” (1653: v). In his Epistle to the Reader there is no specification as to whether the plants he discusses are from home or abroad or whether they are cultivated or wild; he simply extols God’s Creation and includes all useful medicinal plants that can grow in Britain. There are no descriptions of spices such as ginger, cinnamon and cassia, therefore, but there is full coverage of their therapeutic uses in The English Physician section of the herbal (Culpeper 1653: 227). Plants such as tobacco from Brazil, good for “expectorat[ing] tough phlegm from the stomach, chest, and lungs” (Culpeper 1653: 177), and the Mediterranean peach tree and fig tree are described only insofar as they “prosper very well in our English gardens” (1653: 75). He too gives detailed descriptions of both cultivated and wild plants including both types of poppy (Culpeper 1653: 145), for example. Hill’s two herbals - The Useful Family Herbal (1755) and The British Herbal (1756) are similar to Culpeper’s in that they prioritize the medicinal uses of plants. Hill worked both as an apothecary and as a consultant at Kew Garden (cf. Desmond 1995: 35-36) and wrote his herbals at a time when botanists were busy classifying plants according to the Linnaean system. Hill accused botanists of losing sight of the practical applications of “one of the most honourable sciences in the world” (1755: vi), i.e. botany, and specifies that his work is published “for the benefit of mankind” (1755: iii). Nevertheless, he must have felt the pressure of his fellow botanists because his second herbal displays his knowledge of classification. Content-wise Hill’s texts are very similar to Gerard’s in that they describe plants from home and abroad. Though he states that [t]he foreign Plants brought into our Stoves with so much Expence, and kept there with so much Pains, may fill the Eye with empty Wonder: But it would be more to the Honour of the Possessor of them, to have found out the Use of one common Herb at Home, than to have enriched our Country with an Hundred of others. (1755: vii) he includes drugs from abroad “kept by Druggists and Apothecaries” (1755: xv) and, unlike Culpeper, also descriptions of the plants from which they are obtained (1755: xvi). Even The British Herbal (1756) gives foreign plants a prominent place throughout and includes plants such as the pomegranate, acacia, tobacco, and ginger, and even “the China-root Plant [...] also brought from America” (1755: 78), probably the plant later known as ginseng. The useful Family Herbal is primarily addressed to “those charitable Ladies who may be desirous of giving [...] Relief to the afflicted Poor in their Neighbourhood” (1755: xvi) or to anyone “desirous of being useful to their Families and Friends” (1755: xv) while The British Herbal throws more emphasis on classification. Hill too focuses on both wild and cultivated species of plants and in the introduction to the family herbal he states his intention to “inform those Susan Kermas 168 who live in the Country, [...] of the Virtues of those Plants, which grow wild about them” (ibid.). Green’s herbal is well balanced. It addresses “the Botanist, Farmer, Gardener, and Country Housekeeper, with a compendium of Botanical, Agricultural, and Medical knowledge, collected from the accumulated labours of the most eminent authors” (1824: Preface) and displays his knowledge about both native and foreign exemplars of the vegetable kingdom as indeed methods for their propagation and culture. As “foreman of the flower garden at Kew” (Desmond 1995: 417) he had specialized knowledge of gardening techniques and even introduced a new method of fumigating insects in the glasshouses and knew all about the classification of plants. Indeed, his herbal is also addressed to anyone wishing to botanize at home and abroad. Although Green takes pain to include “all known plants in the world” like Hill, he has reservations about foreign plants and encourages people to use those growing in the fields as “it has been observed, the productions of each respective country, are always best suited to supply the wants of its inhabitants both for food and medicine” (1824: 47). He warns that “the drugs brought from abroad, are not to be trusted with those who have not great experience; but there will be no danger of this kind, when the fields afford the supply” (1824: 38). For instance, “If opium, may be dangerous in an inexperienced hand, the person who will give in its place a syrup of the wild lettuce, (a plant not known in common practice at the time, but recommended from experience in this treatise) will find that it will ease pain, and that it will cause sleep, in the manner of the foreign drug, but will never find any ill consequences from it” (ibid.). With the increasing use of chemicals in medicine, the herbal fell into decline. Interest in herbs reemerged in the early 20th century, especially during World War I when there was a shortage of medicine, but herbalism was outlawed in 1941 by the Pharmacy Act and only repealed by the Medicines Act of 1968. A Modern Herbal was published in 1931 but it is so heavily edited that it is impossible to know exactly what was written by Maud Grieve, the author of the original pamphlets on single plants, and what was added by Hilda Leyel, alias Mrs. C. F. Leyel 2 . The text is encyclopedic and embraces all known in- 2 According to Leyel, Grieve’s pamphlets formed the “nucleus of the much-needed modern herbal” (Leyel 1931: xiv) and only included English herbs; however, Grieve lived for a while in India and presumably was well acquainted with Indian herbs and probably had access to works collected by Symington Grieve, a distinguished antiquarian and cousin of her husband’s and might have written about Japanese plants such as agar-agar and Australian acacias included in the herbal. Both Grieve and Leyel had important roles in the development of herbalism, the former setting up a herbgrowing business and The Whins Medicinal and Commercial Herb School and Farm on her return from India in 1905, the latter founding the Society of Herbalists in 1926. It has even been suggested that they collaborated in the writing of the herbal but that Grieve never received a copy. (George Knowles at http: / / www.controverscial.com/ Mrs%20Grieve.htm). The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 169 formation - synonyms, parts used, habitat, description, constituents, medicinal action and uses, dosage - as indeed what was said about each plant by earlier authors (very similar to Gerard); however, it is the only modern encyclopedic herbal containing plants from all over the world. The general trend, indeed, is that herbals published from the late 19th century to today are specific to particular countries and focus on the therapeutic uses of plants. We have, for instance, Neil’s The New Zealand Family Herb Doctor (1891/ 1998) and Hall’s Herbal Medicine (1988) which are specific to New Zealand and Australian drugs respectively and more interestingly for our discourse on British herbals, Hatfield’s Herbal (2007) focused on English herbs. Hatfield’s herbal (2007) is in line with the general development of herbals. It focuses on local wild plants and attempts “to describe the varying ways in which they have been used by ordinary people as well as by health professionals” (2007: xii) in time. Since “we have become more and more urbanized” (2007: ix) in recent centuries, Hatfield invites the reader to take a fresh look at nature and “encourages further study of our own largely neglected [flora]” (2007: xii). Content-wise her herbal is very similar to Gerard’s. It has the same descriptions and information about the names, folklore and therapeutic uses as well as recipes and instructions for the preservation of plants and for their preparation (2007: 93). It also includes “The Curious Stories of Britain’s Wild Plants,” as the subtitle suggests, as well as interesting literary anecdotes. However, her main purpose is to document the therapeutic uses of each plant as revealed in earlier herbals and to reveal what people interviewed have told her. Like Hill and Green she also tries to involve the general reader in discovering the old remedies used by our forefathers and to contribute to the making of a huge database before such information is lost to posterity. 4 The herbalists’ changing priorities Certainly, all the herbals examined address a general readership and provide practical advice about the medicinal application of herbs but it is also possible notwithstanding plagiarism to note that each herbalist had a special niche. Gerard had special regard for gardening, Culpeper was preoccupied with the influence of the planets on nature and disease, Hill and Green with encouraging the reader to botanize, but more importantly we can note changing attitudes thanks to the development of scientific thought. Basically, early pre-Linnaean herbals were prevalently written to extol God’s Creation and were based on what previous herbalists had written; nonetheless early scientific enquiry is already in an embryonic stage in Gerard. His work was indeed based on a translation of Dodoenus and on information from earlier authorities 3 but he was only too glad to describe his 3 For example, he reported what Clusius said about the Virginian potato growing “naturally in America, where it was first discovered” (1597: 222). Susan Kermas 170 own gardening experiments and his attempts to adapt newly-discovered plants to the English climate and habitat. Just half a century later while admitting that he “drew out all the virtues of the vulgar or common Herbs, Plants and Trees, &c out of the best, or most approved authors” (1653: iv in Culpeper 1814) Culpeper puts the traditional model of ‘ancient authority’ to the test by observing how “one part of the Creation is subservient to another” (ibid.) and harshly criticizes earlier herbalists like Gerard and Parkinson who “did nothing else but train up young novices in Physic in the School of tradition, and teach them just as a parrot is taught to speak” (ibid.). We may find Culpeper’s observations on astrology and the attribution of a planet to each herb and disease rather naive; nonetheless, it points to the beginning of scientific thought based on observation rather than hearsay and certainly marks a change in the herbal tradition. The introduction of Linnaean classification in the mid 18th century is pivotal to the development of the herbal since herbs themselves were now studied from a purely botanical perspective. The two herbals published by Hill epitomize the problem this posed. While the new taxonomic approach was methodologically sound it also called for precise technical terms and herbalists had now to take into account the newly introduced terminology. Both of Hill’s herbals are aimed at families as all previous herbals but the second one is more scientific in approach. It is arranged according to division and genus and information about varying classifications of plants by different authors is also given. In the preface to his family herbal Hill complains about the inaccessibility of the terminology used by botanists and explains that he only agreed with classifications in so far as they help us discover the virtues of herbs. Indeed, he encourages people to botanize and to experiment and the appendix contains full details “for the farther seeking into the Virtues of English Herbs, and the Manner of doing it with Ease and Safety” (1755: title page). He bases his information on medical properties and recipes of earlier authors but more importantly on personal experience as a ‘Physic’. He says Very few Things are named here, that he has not seen tried; and if some are set down, which other Writers have not named, and some of which they have said most, are slightly mentioned; it is owing to the same Experience, which has added to the Catalogue in some things, and has found it too great for Truth in others. (1755: xvii) For example, he says that according to Galen a girl “was kept free from the epilepsy eight months by wearing a piony root about her neck” (1755: 49) and that “other grave authors [...] confirm the same account” (ibid.). He knows “from experience, that taken inwardly it is a very great and excellent medicine, and deserves to be brought more into use” (ibid.) and suggests that “the best way of giving it is in the powder of the root, fresh dried: twelve grains is a dose and will do great service in all nervous complaints, headaches, and convulsions. It will alone cure that disagreeable disorder, the nightmare” (ibid.). The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 171 Green provides thorough explanations of the new classifications and definitions of the terminology in the introductory sections of his herbal. Like Hill he thought it was pointless studying plants without taking into consideration the relevance of these studies to furthering our knowledge of the therapeutic uses of plants and chunks of his text about the rules for gathering and preserving herbs have indeed been copied wholesale from Hill’s family herbal. Nonetheless, he expresses his own views and explains that although he is of the opinion that too many virtues have been attributed to most plants he regrets that “the present universal use of chemical preparations has almost driven the whole Galenical medicine out of our minds” (1824: 38). As a consequence, he sets out to encourage botanists to explore hitherto unknown properties of English plants growing in the fields basing his method on trial and observation. He gives extraordinary accounts of possible ways of detecting the properties of plants that no-one would dare follow today. He says those plants which have a strong but an agreeable taste, are most worthy to be examined with respect to their virtues; for they are generally the most valuable; and, on the contrary, when a very strong taste is also a very disagreeable one; or, in the same manner, when the strong smell of a plants has also something heavy, disagreeable, and overpowering in it: there is mischief in the herb, rather than any useful quality. (1824: 47) The shift of focus on the vegetable kingdom at large to local plants is likewise linked to the development of botany as a science. While early herbals were all in praise of God’s Creation and the desire to describe previously unknown plants from the newly explored areas of the world was a natural extension of the general intent to praise God, religious sentiment is gradually lost with the gradual specialization of the discipline. Gerard draws our attention to “the invisible wisdome and admirable workmanship of Almighty God” (1597 in Woodward 1998: 1) in his description of the delights of the vegetable kingdom and the use of herbs “both for meates to maintaine life, and for medicine to recover health” (ibid.) and furthers our knowledge of the Creation with his discoveries from the Americas. Culpeper likewise draws the readers’ attention to the Creation in the quotation on the title page stating that “The Lord hath created Medicines out of the Earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them - Ecc. Xxxviii” and throughout his preface demonstrates that his astrological observations are inextricably linked to “the wisdom and power of a great God” (1853: iv) who created everything “for the use of Man”(1653: v). Subsequent herbals promoting scientific investigation become increasingly detached from the original divine purpose. Hill’s preface to his family herbal is indeed imbued with the idea of charity and the dedication to Lady Germain is made so that she “may yet long continue a Blessing to the present Age” (1755: iii). The frontispiece of the second herbal illustrating “The [winged] Genius of Health recieving the tributes of Europe, Asia, Africa and America, and delivering them to the British Reader” (1756) in the form of the herbal Susan Kermas 172 and the royal emblem with the words ‘esperance en Dieu’ also make botanical explorations appear to be a divine enterprise; however, there is no further mention of God in the herbals themselves. Green, too, states that botany “manifestly displays the unbounded goodness and wisdom of God” (1824: 1) but this aspect is pursued no further. The herbal has a didactic purpose and like Hill’s attempts to encourage readers to make their own scientific discoveries. The 21st century herbal is a continuum of this new approach. It alludes to “the holy grail of plant medicine” (2007: xix) but Hatfield’s urgent appeal to the reader to help “record plant remedies used within living memory” (2007: xviii) has a scientific purpose far removed from the divine. With the development of botany, then, it is easy to perceive the necessity to concentrate on local plants. Though Gerard does not specify this in his preface, he already hints that local plants were more suitable than foreign when he says that tobacco grown in Britain is “better for the constitution of our bodies, than that which is brought from India; and that growing in the Indies better for the people of the same Country” (1597: 286). 4 A little later, we know from the title page of Physicall Directory (1661) (Arber 1938: 261) that Culpeper was already of the opinion that “such things [... that] grow in England [...] are most fit for English bodies” but there is no hint of this in the epistle to the reader. Like Gerard, he specifies he “write[s] not of exoticks” (1653: 76) only in a fleeting reference to the fig tree from across the seas. It would appear that these herbalists did not want to disappoint their readers who were yearning to learn more about the wonders of the newly explored territories. Hill is the first to insist that “the principal Regard ought to be had to those of our own Growth” (1755: vii) and the title of his second text is indeed The British Herbal; however, he too includes foreign plants because the reader has the right to know more about those herbs that can be found at the apothecary’s. In the introduction to the family herbal he states that “Nature has in this Country, and doubtless also in all others, provided in the Herbs of its own Growth, the Remedies for several Diseases to which it is most subject” (1755: xvii). In no way does he disparage foreign plants. He records their benefits, e.g. the Turks give the roots of the purple primrose “dried and powdered in disorders of the stomach, with great success” (1755: 68) and even suggests that the male peony which is “a native of the dark woods of Switzerland, and some parts of Europe [...] deserves to be brought more into use” (1755: 48-49). As late as the early 19th century, readers expect herbalists to include plants from round the world. Though Green is aware that one should devote one’s leisure time to “the discovering, among the number of the unregarded, virtues which may farther supply the catalogue of our own remedies, and make the roots and seeds brought from remote countries less necessary” (1824: 46), he 4 He also stated that tobacconists did not agree because of the proverbial idea that “Far fetched and deer bought is best for Ladies” (ibid.). The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 173 does not preclude investigating foreign plants and information regarding the “exact places of growth” of foreign plants is also supplied for the benefit of readers wishing to botanize abroad. Like Hill, he considers botanizing to be a useful hobby and even instructs the reader to “interleave their copies in the binding, that their own observations, additions, or corrections, may be noted in their proper order, for their individual use” (1824: i). He says botanizing is ‘healthful’ and ‘innocent’, “it beguiles the tediousness of the road; [...] it furnishes amusement at every footstep of the solitary walk; and [...] fill[s] our hearts with gratitude, while we discover the bounty, wisdom, and power, of the great CREATOR” (1824: 10). Hatfield’s approach is based on fieldwork but is more cautious. She realizes that folk medicine has been “grossly misrepresented” (2007: xvi) and has tried to redress the balance by attempting “to show that at least some of the valuable medicines currently in use owe their discoveries to folk medicine” (ibid.). Like Hill and Green she realizes that “on our very doorstep are humble native plants that are as yet unstudied and unappreciated” and yet from personal experience knows that many of these can alleviate disorders, e.g. “tansy juice rubbed on the skin deters midges. A fresh leaf of peppermint chewed for indigestion” (2007: xvii). What she suggests is that people “contribute memories of any plant remedies that they have used to [... a] growing database (www.rbgkew.org.uk/ ethnomedica), based at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew” (2007: xviii), which will become “an invaluable tool for future research” (ibid.). In other words, by combining modern technology and science with information from older country folk, who knew by trial and error which plants were good for them (2007: xix), she too is promoting scientific investigation. 5 The specialization of the herbal as a genre The development of botany has of course influenced the macro-structure of herbals, i.e. the general content and organization of their discourse. Early herbals such as Gerard’s are huge encyclopedic texts. The main part of the herbal is arranged according to the garden and divided into books and chapters accordingly. The first book is devoted to grasses, corn, reeds and bulbous plants, the second to herbs used in cooking and in medicine, the third to trees, shrubs and bushes as well as mosses and mushrooms growing in this section of the garden. Each chapter is devoted to one plant only and even wild species of the same plant are treated separately. Each chapter contains separate sections devoted to the description of the plant, the place and time, the names, the nature and the virtues. There are several indexes arranged alphabetically to facilitate consultation, one for the Latin names of plants, one for the English as indeed separate indexes for alternative names and an index indicating therapeutic needs, e.g. ‘To heale the Almonds of the throte’ or ‘To break and scatter Windiness of the bellie and guts’ reminding us of the important role of Susan Kermas 174 herbals in the 16th century. It has the form of a reference text, indispensable to the family. Culpeper’s herbal (1653) is organized differently in that there is a herbal proper with plants introduced in a loose alphabetical order 5 with sections devoted to Description, Place, Time, Government and Virtues, very similar to Gerard’s, but the rest of the text is medically-oriented. One part contains directions for making syrups and conserves (1653: 198) and has a section devoted to the gathering, drying, and keeping Simples, and their juices’ with chapters devoted to specific types of plant (herbs, flowers, seeds) and another devoted to the making and keeping of compounds with chapters devoted to syrups, poultices, pills and so on. This is followed by the English Physician and Family Dispensatory (1653: 211) discussing the physiological functions of the body, the influence of the planets and the administration of therapies which is likewise structured according to typology, i.e. ‘woods and their chips’, ‘herbs and their leaves’, ‘flowers’ and so on, followed by the names of specific plants and their specific uses. This part includes ‘parts of living creatures, and excrements’, e.g. “Bears grease stays the falling off of the hair” (1653: 253), ‘metals, minerals, and stones’ as well as things ‘belonging to the sea’, e.g. “pearls [...] and red Coral preserve the body in health, and resist fevers” (1653: 254). The whole of the text bears the mark of Culpeper’s scientific enquiry. There is a catalogue of simples, classified according to category, property and function (e.g. roots for heat in the head) followed by ‘tinctures’, ‘syrups’, ‘oils’ with recipes from the College of Physicians as well as Culpeper’s own directions for use. 6 The final part concerns the medicines most suited to the various parts of the body and to the function of medicines themselves. The index is less exhaustive than Gerard’s. It includes the names of plants - Latin and English - electuaries and “receipts for a Rheum in the Head” and so on, all in one shorter general index. Hill’s family herbal is arranged alphabetically according to the English names of plants and is easier to consult. The Latin names are included but are in second position and each section is devoted to one species. There are no further headings or indexes, the content is in plain prose. Hill adds an appendix concerning the virtues of plants, which have not yet been tried so that the reader may discover their properties thereby making “the Roots and Seeds brought from remote Countries, less necessary” (1755: 397). Hill’s second herbal (1756) has a scientific layout. The plants are ordered according to Linnaean classification into classes and genera with further subdivisions into 5 The classification is rather erratic. Though all plants beginning with ‘a’ are together, Adder’s tongue, Alehoof, Alkanet and All-heal are all after Amara dulcis. 6 For oil of bitter almonds we have the following information from the “College] It is made like Oile of sweet Amonds, but that you need not blanch them, nor have such a care of heat in pressing out the oil. Culpeper] It opens stoppings, helps such as are deaf, being dropped into their ears, it helps the hardness of the nerves, and takes away spots in the face. It is seldom, nor never taken inwardly” (1653: 353). The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 175 British, i.e. “those of which one or more species are wild in this country” (1756: 141) and foreign species. In this text he numbers each species of any genus, giving first of all the English names and then the Latin. The index at the end of the book includes both the common English names and the Latin but the text itself puts the English name first, e.g. Larkspur Delphinium (1756: 42). Separate headings are used for the classes and the names of the plants (both English and Latin) but not for the subdivision of the descriptions, i.e. for the various sections describing the plants, the place, the time, the names and the virtues as in the family herbal. Green (1824) uses alphabetical ordering but priority is given to the Latin names. Green describes botany as a “delightful science” (Preface) “founded upon the discovery, that in plants, as well as in animals, there is an indisputable distinction of the sexes” (1824: 1). As a consequence, the text contains tables with rigid classifications of the plants in orders and classes and detailed information regarding these subdivisions. The plants are ordered both according to the Latin name of the genus and to the corresponding English common name so they can be “more readily found” (1824: 38) but the detailed information is only to be found in the Latin entries. The various species are ordered numerically and each Latin name is followed by alternative English ones. We have the same descriptions and details about the place, time, and virtues as the earlier texts as indeed information about the names but they are not given separate headings. Detailed gardening instructions are also included. There are various indexes, which again give the work a more academic appeal. At the end of volume 1, there is an index of diseases and disorders referring to plants in the same volume. At the end of volume 2, there is also The Gardener’s Calendar, or Monthly Course of Labour (1824: 849) and catalogues of plants ordered according to plant type, i.e. fruit trees and shrubs (1824: 859), hardy evergreen trees (1824: 858) in order to help the gardener’s selection of plants. There are also two indexes, one of English names followed by the Latin (1824: 870) and one Latin followed by the English besides an appendix containing a table of classes natural orders of plants along with their essential features. It also includes “very numerous excellent Recipes, which the copious Indices of Diseases, accompanying each Volume, will readily refer” (preface) and “Rules for gathering and preserving herbs, roots, barks, seeds, and flowers [...] as may best retain their Virtues, or be most useful to be kept in Families” (1824: 38). In form, Hatfield’s herbal is very similar to earlier herbals such as Gerard’s. It has a separate section for each plant and has the same descriptions and information about the names, folklore and therapeutic uses but like Hill’s family herbal and Green’s universal herbal there are no separate headings for each paragraph. The index is all inclusive. It includes English and Latin names (giving priority to the former) and references to disorders, folklore, names of herbalists etc. Lengthwise all herbals from the end of the 20th centu- Susan Kermas 176 ry to today are practical desktop books while all previous texts were long and copious, Green’s even split into two full volumes. 6 Discursive practices From a discursive viewpoint the language used in each of these herbals is straightforward. Gerard’s text is descriptive and the language used is extremely simple. The third person is used throughout even for cooking recipes and medical preparations. Only the occasional recipe is in the second person, e.g. a cure using English tobacco for “cuts and hearts in the head” (Woodward 1998: 89), and the first person occasionally introduces Gerard’s opinions as opposed to previous authors’ and marks his own personal contribution to the gardening world. He says, for instance, “The seeds of this rare and faire plant came from the Indies into Spaine, and thence into France and Flanders, from whence I received seed that bore with mee both floures & seed, especially those I received from my loving friend John Robin of Paris” (1597: 59). The language Culpeper uses both in his general descriptions and his ‘scientific’ observations is also accessible. He too prioritizes the third person even when expounding his own hypotheses. In the case of the peony, for instance, he says “Physicians say, Male Peony roots are best; but Dr. Reason told me Male Peony was best for men, and Female Peony for women, and he desires to be judged by his brother Experience” (1814: 137). His observations are extremely naive compared to today’s and the state of the art is such that technical language is not required. In the medicinal section he omits the subject, e.g. “Zingiberis. Of Ginger. Helps digestion, warms the stomach, clears the sight, and is profitable for old men: heats the joints, and therefore is profitable against the gout, expels wind; it is hot and dry in the second degree” (1814: 227), a stylistic feature typical of dictionaries and instructions even today. In his useful family herbal Hill is extremely critical of Linnaeus who introduced technical language without taking into account the medicinal properties of plants and both of his herbals are written in simple language “to be understood by all” (1755: xiii). The second one is more scientific in the general arrangement of the plants, but the descriptions of the features of each class of plants, their properties and parts used are in plain language as indeed the details regarding the plants’ habitat and directions for finding plants. Indeed, he even suggests that early herbals are useless since they were written in Latin 7 and criticizes Linnaeus for confounding botany with “unintelligible Terms and [... a] multiplicity of names” (1755: xii). Green’s (1824) herbal is the only one to be considered a mixed genre from a discursive viewpoint. Since all the technical terms are defined in his intro- 7 For example, though Ray gives some important information in his herbal Hill says that “those who want the information cannot read it” (1755: 125) because it is written in Latin. The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 177 duction to botany the author includes the new terminology in the various tables and indexes and partly takes for granted that the reader will understand his use of such terms. Indeed, though the actual descriptions of the individual species are in plain language the generic features of each plant are specialized for the uninitiated. For instance, the initial description of the Hydrangea Hortensis with its “Leaves ellipticall, serrate, [... and] stamina all of equal length” contains semi-technical discourse while details of the specific species include information such as “it does not flower so well in the open air as in a greenhouse” (1824: 721) in extremely accessible language. The parts dealing with the preservation of herbs, their uses and preparation and the work to be done in the various sections of the garden month by month are all aimed at the householder and are written in plain language. Hatfield’s herbal is very similar to Gerard’s in content and form with the only difference that Gerard’s “Historie of Plants” includes both native and foreign and cultivated and wild plants while Hatfield’s “The Curious Stories of Britain’s Wild Plants” is focused on plants growing in English fields and is less exhaustive. There are fewer references to place and time of flowering in the modern herbal since Hatfield’s main aim is to record the therapeutic uses of each plant through the centuries. She describes the history of each plant as used in official medicine and as a folk remedy and uses an expository form in the third person therefore. Like early 17th century herbalists she includes recipes and instructions for the preservation of plants and medicinal preparations (2007: 93) and the only use of the second person is the occasional recipe in reported speech. 7 Botanical nomenclature and etymologies Botanical nomenclature has always been complex and early herbalists already felt the need to adopt a Latin name because of the ambiguity of certain common names. Culpeper was probably the first herbalist to actually point out the difficulty and to apologize for his choice of names. He says “considering divers shires in this nation give divers names to one and the same herb, and that the common name which it bears in one county, is not known in another: I shall take pains to set down all the names that I know of each herb: pardon me for setting that name first, which is most common to myself” (1814: 1). It is nonetheless obvious that Gerard was aware of this ambiguity because he included detailed information about names and provided alternative Latin names whenever available. In the case of the nasturtium he says “This beautiful Plant is called in Latine, Nasturtium Indicum: in English, Indian Cresses. Although some have deemed it a kind of Convolvulus, or Binde-weed; yet I am well contented that it retains the former name, for that the smell and taste shew it to be a kinde of Cresses” (1597: 59). In the case of the water crowfoot he even indicates the danger of misnaming and says that “most Apothecaries Susan Kermas 178 and Herbarists doe erroniously name it Hepatica aquatica, and Hepatica alba; and with greater error they mix it in medicines” (Woodward 1998: 193). Indeed, pre-Linnaean herbals tend to focus their attention on various alternative names, some even specifying the names according to authoritative writers and botanists. Culpeper specifies “The Wild Poppy, or Corn Rose (as Matthiolus saith)” (1814: 145) and in the Physician section puts the Latin name in first position even though it is not given in the index, e.g. Zingiberis. Of Ginger (1814: 177). With the introduction of Linnaean classification, alternative names still appear in herbals for the purpose of identification and, with exception of Green, herbalists continue to order the descriptions of plants according to the most well-known English name rather than the Latin one because the lay reader is the herbalists’ prime concern. It is a well known fact that popular texts often include etymological information (Gotti 2005). By tracing the herbalists’ concern for etymology we can indeed assess the degree of popularization of herbals. Gerard’s herbal is indeed full of such information. He says, for instance, that the “Anemone, or Wind-floure, is so called, for the floure doth never open it selfe but when the wind doth blow” (1597: 97) and the cowslip “are commonly called Primula veris, because they are the first among those plants that doe floure in the Spring” (179). He also focuses on details such as “Borage is called in shops Borago: Pliny calleth it Euphrosinum, because it makes a man merry and joyfull” (1597: 185). Culpeper’s text on the other hand which informs the lay reader of his astrological observations displays little interest in etymology. The author sometimes mentions the place of origin of plants such as the English tobacco which “came from some parts of Brazil, as it is thought, and is more familiar in our own country than any of the other sorts” (1814: 177) but etymology is not broached. He specifies alternative names. For the artichoke he says “The Latins call them Cinera, only our college calls them Artichocus” (1814: 88), a specification dear to academics. Likewise Hill’s second herbal concentrates on supplying alternative names, the common name and the official Linnaean nomenclature as well as any further alternative Latin names for the purpose of identification. In the case of the Red Poppy or Papaver rhaeas, for example, he says “C. Bauhine calls it Papaver erraticum majus. Others, Papaver erraticum, Papaver rubrum, and Papaver rhaeas” (1756: 144). In his useful family herbal on the other hand there is no such interest in the naming process. He includes only the most familiar names in English “no matter what Caspar, or John Bauhine, or Linnaeus call them” (1756: xiii) and merely adds the Latin names “under which they will be found in every Dictionary” (ibid.). Hill (1756) always specifies the provenance of plants and supplies alternative names, e.g. for the foreign species of primrose - the purple primrose - he says “The Turks call it Carchidec” (1756: 68) but there appears to be little space for etymologies in either herbal. The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 179 It would indeed appear that few herbals contain etymological information in spite of their popular form. In Green’s introduction he gives definitions for technical terminology and includes the meanings of some Latin botanical terms, e.g. “Arborescent, from herbaceous becoming woody” (1824: 23) but in the specific entries for each plant there are no references to etymology. It would indeed appear that Hill and Green have both directed their discourse towards the useful end of botanizing in order to counteract the danger of studying botany for the sake of classification. Though nomenclature is not her prime concern, Hatfield gives information about alternative names and their provenance and does include etymological information when available, e.g. for the cornflower she says that “its specific name cyanus means ‘dark blue’ in Greek” (2007: 78) and “the daisy is the ‘day’s eye’, ‘opening to the sun when it rises’, as Chaucer wrote in his lovely little homage to one of our most common and abundant flowers” (2007: 93). Hatfield also tells us how confusing common names can be and provides information hitherto unknown. She says “The country names that people gave to the plants around them are as varied as the communities that gave rise to them. East Anglia’s ‘paigles’ are Somerset’s ‘totsies’ and Hertfordshire’s ‘cowslips’; Scotland’s ‘bluebell’ is England’s ‘harebell’” (2007: xiii). As she herself notes “The early, printed herbals were largely descriptions of Mediterranean plants that had been used by the Ancients, the authors ‘best-guessed’ which plant was meant by the Ancients, and sometimes even substituted a local plant” (ibid.). Her purpose was among others to encourage urban reader to elicit interest in nature; her interest in the naming process is linked to her general extolling of nature. 8 Concluding remarks All in all, we can conclude that the herbal as a text type is prevalently popular. It does of course address the needs of a mixed readership and sometimes offers technical data using semi-technical language. Botany itself, more than any other science, has many practical applications and the need for precision in naming plants is indispensable not only for the classifier, but also for the herbalist dispensing medicine as indeed the gardener planting seeds in his garden. We also have to take into account that the common names of plants vary widely and herbalists therefore have to give full coverage of alternative names in each herbal no matter what the priorities of the herbalist. This is important when assessing the degree of popularization of these texts according to the presence of one of the main features of popular texts, i.e. etymologizing. These texts are not language treatises and in many cases there is little space for the inclusion of etymology in addition to the Latin equivalents and other alternative names. It would indeed appear that the more medically focused herbals are less likely to include etymological data and even appear to fulfill the requirements Susan Kermas 180 of academia by mentioning the names used by other authorities; this is the case of Culpeper and Hill’s second herbal. However, it is for the sake of clarity that they focus on alternative names rather than etymology since misunderstanding could be extremely harmful especially when dealing with therapeutic uses. The absence of etymological details in Green’s herbal is closely linked to his didactic purpose and to his general appraisal of Linnaean classification since his main intent is to define terminology rather than include historical data. Indeed it would appear that the most popular texts are the first and last, i.e. the two most distant from the Linnaean debate. Though Gerard’s and Hatfield’s also focus on therapeutic uses of plants, they are more than the others, also intent on inciting enjoyment of nature, Gerard for embellishing the garden, Hatfield for encouraging the urban reader to appreciate nature. From a discursive and structural point of view the impact of Linnaeus is particularly relevant. Though all herbalists use language accessible to the lay reader, it is soon after the introduction of this new system that Hill arranges the plants according to Linnaean classification in his second herbal and Green fully explains the system. Green’s text is indeed to be considered the most academic. He prioritizes the Latin names of the plants, describes generic features using semi-technical language and includes tables. It is indeed after Linnaeus that herbals fall into decline and texts generally become more specialized. We have botanical dictionaries, gardening manuals and encyclopedias, floras and cookbooks specific to any particular geographic areas as indeed pharmacopoeas such as Henkel’s wild medicinal plants of the United States (1906), Lloyd’s history of vegetable drugs of the US (1911), Potter’s Cyclopaedia of Botanical Drugs and Preparations (Wren 1915) and Ellis’s English medicinal and poisonous plants (1918). The publication of The Family Herb Doctor (Neil 1998) and Dorothy Hall’s Herbal Medicine (1988) certainly prove there is still a place for the herbal. Though the modern herbal is more specifically medically-oriented and focuses on local plants, both from a discursive and a structural point of view they are unencumbered and very similar to pre-Linnaean herbals privileging simplicity in style and form. Hatfield’s general-purpose herbal is based on hearsay and observation and reminisces pre-urban society. Her collection of folk remedies and her desire to involve as many people as possible in her search is very similar to both Hill’s and Green’s searches based on trial and error but science has progressed and it is the researchers at Kew who will examine the information collected. We can see from an important notice at the beginning of the 1998 edition of Neil’s New Zealand herbal warning the reader that “the recipes, remedies, and treatments in this book are not intended to replace treatment from health professionals [... and that they should ] not under any circumstances undertake any of the suggested treatments without first seeking advice from a suitably qualified person” that the divide between official medicine and herbal remedies is still strongly felt and Hatfield’s comment that her next step would The Development of the Herbal as a Popular Text Type 181 be to persuade the medical profession to prescribe natural extracts from plants shows that she would like to overcome this barrier. Whether the loss of the religious sense of herbals with the gradual specialization of botany will ever return is hard to foresee and depends very much on the authors’ sensitivity. Neil’s intention to enlighten the reader falls within a Christian’s obligation of doing “good of their fellow-beings” (1998: 3) but there is no such intention in Hatfield. In the meantime, we can conclude that the publication of these texts certainly suggests that a reappraisal of herbal remedies is under way. References Arber, A. (1938/ 2010). Herbals: Their Origin and Evolution. A Chapter in the History of Botany, 1470-1670. London: Cambridge University Press. Bhatia, V.K. (2004). Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-Based View. London/ New York: Continuum. Culpeper, (1814) [1653]. Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, to which is now added, upwards of one hundred additional herbs, with a display of their Medicinal and Occult Qualities; Physically applied to the cure of all disorders incident to mankind. To which are now first annexed his English Physician Enlarged, and Key to physic, with rules for Compounding Medicine according to the true System of Nature. Forming a complete Family Dispensatory and Natural System of Physic, to which is also added upwards of fifty choice receipts, Selected from the Author’s Last Legacy to his Wife. Embellished with engravings of upwards of four hundred different plants, with other subjects to illustrate the work. London: Evans. Available at www.botanicus.org Desmond, R. (2007) [1995]. The History of the Royal Botanic Gardens Kew. Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew: Kew Publishing. Gerard, J. (1597). The Herball, or Generall historie of plantes. Gathered by John Gerarde of London. Master in Chirurgerie. London: John Norton. botanicus.org Gotti, M. (2005). Investigating Specialized Discourse. Bern: Peter Lang. Green, T. (1824) (2nd ed.) [1823]. The Universal Herbal; or, Botanical, Medical, and Agricultural Dictionary. Containing an account of All the known Plants in the World, arranged according to the Linnean system. specifying the uses to which they are or may be applied, whether as food, as medicine, or in the arts and manufactures with the best methods of propagation, and the most recent agricultural improvements. Collected from indisputable Authorities. Adapted to the farmer - the gardener - the husbandman - the botanist - the florist - and country housekeepers in general. London: Caxton Press. Vol. 1 available at http: / / openlibrary.org/ books/ OL7043354M/ ; vol. 2 available at http: / / www.archive.org Hall, D. (1988). Dorothy Hall’s Herbal Medicine. Port Melbourne: A Lothian Book. Hatfield, G. (2007). Hatfield’s Herbal. The Curious Stories of Britain’s Wild Plants. London: Penguin. Hill, J. (1755). The Useful Family Herbal with an Introduction ... and an appendix Containing, a Proposal for the farther seeking into the Virtues of English Herbs, Susan Kermas 182 and the Manner of doing it with Ease and Safety. The whole intended for the use of Families, And for the Instruction of those who are desirous of relieving the distressed Sick. London: W. Johnston & W. Owen. botanicus.org Hill, J. (1756). The British Herbal: An History of Plants and Trees, Natives of Britain, Cultivated for Use, or Raised for Beauty. London: Osborne & Shipton. botanicus.org Hill, J. (1812). The Family Herbal; or, An Account of all those English plants, which are remarkable for their virtues, and of the drugs which are produced by vegetables of other countries; with their descriptions and their uses, as proved by experience. botanicus.org Leyel, H. (ed.) (1931). A Modern Herbal. The medical, culinary, cosmetic and economic properties, cultivation and folk-lore of herbs, grasses, fungi, shrubs and trees with modern scientific uses by Mrs M. Grieve. New York: Dover Publishers (2 volumes). Neil, J. (1891/ 1998). The New Zealand Family Herb Doctor: A Guide to Recipes and Herbal Remedies. Twickenham: Tiger Books. Woodward, Marcus (ed.) (1998). Gerard’s Herbal. Twickenham: Senate. Popularization of Medical and Legal Language in TV Series Adriano Laudisio (University of Naples, Italy) 1 Introduction This paper was born from the wish to analyze a genre about which not many studies have been carried out yet: specialized TV series. Fictional TV series are generally distinguished between comedy and drama, according to the features of the characters, the plot, and the general tenor and purposes of the episodes. In this case, the analysis of the genre is not directly connected to what is displayed in TV series, but rather to how it is displayed: the focus will be on the use of language, and in particular on the use of those Special Languages which are inevitably and automatically involved in series staging events which take place within specialized and professional communities. Examples of specialized TV series are legal drama - mainly taking place in courts or law offices - and medical drama - mainly taking place in hospitals and staging extraordinary or rare cases of patients within a narrative frame. These genres are different from other genres, such as family drama or sitcoms, because of the communicative contexts which they stage. If they are willing to stage realistic situations involving lawyers or surgeons in their professional activity, the authors of legal and medical drama cannot avoid taking into consideration the importance of the specific professional practices, procedures and, of course, ways of expressions of the characters they create. Therefore, to find out the features of such genres, one should start from a multimodal analysis which allows the description of images, and in particular the interactions among images, scripts and sounds, but should also focus on a deeper analysis of those elements of TV series which are sometimes considered ‘secondary’ and are underestimated both by scholars and by the audience. Also Gambier (2006) stated that it is a paradox to acknowledge the interrelations between the verbal and the visual, or between language and nonverbal, but to leave the research perspective mainly on the merely linguistic level. This is the reason why this analysis of the SL (Special Languages) used in TV series tries to go beyond the analysis of the words spoken by the characters and focuses on the communicative purposes of the drama authors. The conversations do not only involve the fictional characters, but also a third element, which is represented by the audience made of the series viewers. Thus the analysis of the conversation is conducted on two levels: the first, ‘plain’ level, featuring an interaction between the two fictional speakers; the Adriano Laudisio 184 second ‘transversal’ level which involves the audience as a non-active participant to the conversation and as an ideal outsider from the discourse community represented in the drama. Following this double view, the aim of this research is to focus on the power relationships and the disparity of expertise between the participants to the communication in order to investigate how this is reflected on the audience. Can the audience benefit from TV series in terms of specialized knowledge acquisition? If so, how are SL used in TV Series similar to ‘real’ SL, and which strategies are used to simplify them in audiovisual products? TV series, in fact, have a mainly entertaining purpose and the involvement of the audience is necessary to their existence itself. This is why they need to establish a relationship with the audience and share with them a part of the specialized contents around which the events of the drama take place. 2 Special languages The dissemination of knowledge to a general audience will be henceforth analyzed by moving across two different discourses, medical and legal, which represent the main typologies of specialized dramas. For medical discourse, scenes drawn from the medical drama Grey’s Anatomy are presented and analyzed within the framework of Critical Discourse Analysis and variations in the language used to convey specialized contents will be here highlighted. As for legal discourse, scenes are drawn from the legal drama The Good Wife, and once again the strategies of knowledge popularization are presented through examples of conversation between peers and non-peers. In both cases, the indirect involvement and the informative and educative process towards the audience will be underlined. However, a very general and short introduction to Special Languages is necessary as a preliminary step to understanding the following ones. 2.1 Medical English In a first approach to the Special Language of Medicine, a non expert reader usually finds him/ herself facing a text which looks complex as particularly ‘dense’ from a lexical point of view. Terminology and the lexical aspect are undoubtedly important, but, despite the appearances, medical lexis is not that large: it seems so because of its high productivity, that is to say that all the possible formations can be obtained through suffixation processes. Latin and Greek represent the basis for most of the scientific terminology: as they are ‘dead languages’, they grant a certain semantic stability. Pilegaard (1997) states that: “The medical vocabulary is almost universally based on Greek and Latin roots”. However, medical lexis has not necessarily a classic origin: the main feature of Medical English is, indeed, the duality of its forms. In English, German and other Germanic languages, two forms can be found to refer to the same extra-linguistic element, one of which is a specialized Popularization of Medical and Legal Language in TV Series 185 form (generally of Latin or Greek origin) and the other, more commonly used, of Anglo-Saxon origin. Pilegaard (1997: 171) refers to Medical English with the expression ‘double-layered’, since English speakers’ discursive habits are much more direct and immediate than Italian ones. Italians tend to refer to their diseases by using their technical names, when speaking to an expert, while English speakers, even if professionals, use the popularized forms almost indistinctly (Ross, 2004). An example of this is the term couple ‘hypertension’ and ‘high blood pressure’, which are two terms usually changing according to the register in use. The same happens for ‘nephropathy’ and ‘kidney disease’, which are two synonymic expressions with different origin and uses: the first one comes from Greek, while the second is an expression made of two everyday words; or still, for ‘coccyx’ (coming from Latin) and ‘tailbone’ (see Furlani 2007). In addition to the use of synonyms, medical English is also characterized by the use of noun juxtaposition and nominalization, which Cortelazzo (1990) considers the most important syntactic feature of the Special Languages in general, in addition to the frequent use of acronyms, abbreviations and strategies which grant conciseness and precision. In the following section the subtitles of a scene drawn from Grey’s Anatomy are reported. The participants to the communication are five intern surgeons and two experts surgeons (Dr. Montgomery and Dr. Bailey) speaking to the mother and the father of five quintuplets. This scene is a sequence of case presentations: Dr. Addison Montgomery, a pediatric surgeon, is taking care of a mother who gave birth to five premature twins, each one of whom has been assigned to a second-year intern surgeon, who monitors them constantly. Dr. Miranda Bailey, instead, is the interns’ chief and attends the case presentations made by her apprentices, so this represents a crucial moment to evaluate them. The patient, the mother of the five children, is in a status of post-partum shock: she was asked whether to continue her pregnancy or to interrupt it, and she chose to continue it, but then she has to face the consequences of her choice. For this reason, the five interns have to be particularly sensitive to the status of the patient and, at the same time, protective towards the babies. Scene I Dr. BAILEY: Dr. Yang? Dr. YANG: We’ve done the initial surgery on Julie’s omphalocele. Aprimary closure was attempted, but there was pulmonary compromise, so we couldn’t contin... Dr. BAILEY: Yang, how about we do this in plain English? Dr. YANG: Oh, um, we operated on Julie’s external sack of organs, and we pushed in as much of the bowel as we could, and we think we can push in the rest with a second operation. PATIENT: She has to have a second operation? Adriano Laudisio 186 YANG: Yeah. Oh, well, not for a few days. (my emphasis) Dr. Cristina Yang, the most ambitious among the interns, appears almost cynical and cold in the case presentation and uses technical terms and syntactic constructions, such as “omphalocele”, “pulmonary compromise” and “a primary closure was attempted”. This is why her superior, Dr. Bailey, immediately stops her. Dr. Yang has not realized that her primary purpose should be to inform and reassure the mother of the babies. Whereas, she acts according to what Bhatia (2004) would call her “private intentions”: [to] use a socially recognized communicative purpose (i.e. introducing the academic work) and genres which are considered appropriate for the fulfillment of this purpose to communicate ‘private intentions’ (i.e. to promote the book) […]. This phenomenon of mixing ‘private intentions’ with ‘socially recognized communicative purposes’ is not characteristic of academic introductions alone; it is widely used in other professional genres too, resulting in ‘mixing’ and often ‘bending’ of genres (2004: 73). Dr. Yang does not see this case presentation as a presentation to the mother, but as a presentation which takes place in front of other physicians, including two superiors, and her communicative purpose is inevitably influenced by the participation of these two physicians in this communicative frame. Her main communicative purpose is not the informative one, but the ‘private intention’ of being socially accepted and recognized as a peer by her superiors. Her linguistic choice of highlighting the medical procedures used on the baby (“a primary closure was attempted, but there was pulmonary compromise”) is not casual and is aimed at ‘catching’ the other physicians’ attention on her competence. She chooses the most technical terms, for instance “pulmonary”, “closure” and “compromise”, which are of classic origins and are not as easily understood in English as in Neolatin languages. “Pulmonary”, in particular, is one of those adjective which are considered ‘opaque’: it means “relating or affecting the lungs” and comes from the Greek “pneuma” and the Latin “pulmo, -onis”, while the English word “lungs” has a completely different origin (similarly to the suffixes “nephro-” for “kidney”, “gastro-” for “stomach”, “emo-” “for blood” and so on). However, the interns’ chief, Dr. Bailey, who is aware of her tendency to being competitive, stops her and asks: “How about we do it in plain English? ”. She somehow warns her that the situational context does not fit her communicative purposes, as the parents of the children are waiting for some (good) information about their children and are particularly anxious about it. Here, the switch of communicative context takes place, changing from an ‘expert-expert interaction’ to an ‘expert-non expert interaction’. The change in the register can be easily noticed: the “primary closure” becomes a verb of Popularization of Medical and Legal Language in TV Series 187 frequent use (“we operated”) and the technical terms disappear. The omphalocele, (i.e. “a congenital hernia in which a small portion of the fetal abdominal contents, covered by a membrane sac, protrudes into the base of the umbilical cord” 1 ), is thereafter explained as “the external sack of organs”. This explicitation takes place through a loss of lexical density, which is typical of SL, and will be made even more explicit by the enlargement of the noun phrase ‘sack of organs’, which becomes ‘sack which contains the organs’. The expression “a primary closure was attempted” is explained in much simpler words as well: “We pushed in as much of the bowel as we could” is the (wrong) attempt made by Dr. Yang to sound comprehensible to the parents of the children. However, her linguistic choice does not have the wished results: choosing words such as “push in” to explain a surgery only resulted in making the already shocked mother even more worried about her children’s health conditions. Finally, for what concerns the expression “pulmonary compromise”, this one is not made accessible by Dr. Yang. Following the previous two examples, a possible ‘popularized’ form for this specialized expression could have been “lung problems” (so avoiding the use of the ‘opaque’ neo-Classical adjective referring to lungs) or, switching from the use of nouns to a verb phrase, e.g. “could not breathe”. Scene II The scene continues with the other interns trying to explain to the parents the health conditions of the children they were assigned: Dr. BAILEY: Dr. O’Malley? Dr. O’MALLEY: We put in Lucy’s brain shunt yesterday, and she’s doing very well. We just have to keep monitoring her to make sure that the spinal fluid doesn’t back up. Dr. BAILEY: Stevens? Dr. STEVENS: Dr. Burke used a catheter to open Emily’s atrial septum last night. Today we’re gonna go in and try to reconstruct the left chamber of her heart. We’re very hopeful. Dr. BAILEY: Dr. Grey? Dr. GREY: Charlotte’s lungs were a little more underdeveloped than the rest of the quints. So we put aspecial mask on her to help her breathe and we’re monitoring her closely. Dr. BAILEY: And that just leaves Kate. Dr. KAREV: She seems to be pretty healthy. No major issues have been identified. But we’re gonna keep her in the Isolette until she makes it to 4 pounds. (my emphasis) 1 Gale Encyclopedia of Medicine (2008); quotation accessible online at http: / / medical-dictionary.thefreedictionary.com/ omphalocele. Adriano Laudisio 188 In the second part of the scene, the other doctors try to explain the health conditions of the other four babies in simple words. Dr. O’Malley still uses a technical term, “shunt”, without trying to explain them what it is. This probably happens because “shunt” itself is a loan word in medical English: in everyday language, it also has the meaning of “turning something aside, to push it, or to transfer, for example from a track to another” and is consequently almost comprehensible to a non expert interlocutor. The choice of the term “spinal fluid”, instead, is an example of a choice in favor of a popularized form: a synonym and more technical word for “spinal fluid” is “liquor”, but it is of Latin origin. Moreover, Dr. O’Malley uses some expressions aimed at reassuring the patient (“she’s doing very well” / “we just have to keep monitoring her”) and which are relevant to the main communicative purpose of the communicative situation. Then, Dr. Stevens presents the case of her baby patient, Emily. In this case the authors of Grey’s Anatomy have chosen to highlight the change of register operated by the speaker. In her first sentence, the intern identifies the part of the body to be operated as “atrial septum” (technical term, of neo-classical origin), whereas in the second part of her speech she focuses on “the left chamber of the heart”, by using a more general terminology (“chamber” is in general every part composing the heart, whether atria or ventricles). She also sounds very vague in the description of the operation and holds a positive and reassuring stance towards the future results of the surgery (“We’re very hopeful”) in order to involve the non expert interlocutors in her case presentation and to achieve the informative and trust-establishing purposes of the communication. Finally, Dr. Meredith Grey and Dr. Alex Karev’s stances are the most representative examples of popularizing a specialized discourse. They completely avoid technical terms and convey the “lay” interlocutors only the pieces of information they need to know about their children. Dr. Grey starts by saying that the “lungs were underdeveloped” and ends her presentation by saying that they had “put a special mask” and were “monitoring” her. Dr. Grey’s linguistic choice is to exclude every single specialized unit of discourse: she could have described which part of the lungs was underdeveloped, which function in particular, or could have listed all the machineries used and their functions. In addition to avoiding technical terms, another feature of the popularization process is the avoidance of nominalization and noun phrases, such as “underdevelopment” or “breath capability”, instead of “to be underdeveloped” and the verb phrase “could breathe”. Dr. Karev speaks to them as if they were his peers: “she seems to be pretty healthy” sounds almost like a sentence of a conversation between two friends. He concludes by giving them some information about the future care in the “Isolette”, which is the name of a trademark of incubators. Table 1. shows the examples of technical terms and the respective popularized forms and the strategy used: Popularization of Medical and Legal Language in TV Series 189 Specialized form Popularized form Popularization strategy Omphalocele External sack of organs Periphrase A primary closure was attempted We pushed in as much of the bowel as we could Nominalization  Verb + Noun structure Pulmonary compromise / (Possible popularized forms: lungs were damaged / breathing problems / she could not breathe etc.) / (Possible strategies: Avoidance of nominalization; non opaque synonyms) (Opaque synonym: liquor) Spinal fluid Non opaque synonym Atrial septum Chamber of the heart Non opaque hypernym / Special mask to help her breathe Definition ( + Avoiding technical term) Table 1 Examples of technical terms, corresponding popularized forms and popularization strategies. 2.2 Legal English Just like Medical English, Legal English has some features which make it inaccessible to most of those who do not belong to the discourse/ professional community. Archaic forms, technical terms, and verbal forms used differently from general language often create real barriers and the average reader of a legal text often finds it incomprehensible, instead of precise and unambiguous as it should be. This is why the process of popularizing law is sometimes necessary, as Williams (2007) also notices: “Interpreting the intention of the lawmakers and those who drafted a particular law inevitably entails a detailed scrutiny of the language and prolonged interpretative debate” (2007: 11). It is not by chance that there are many movements fighting against the complexity of legal English, which can often get in direct contact with lay people, who could misinterpret, underestimate or simply not understand the content of legal documents, such as contracts, agreements, judgments, etc. An example is the Plain English campaign, which had “the goal of a simplified universally intelligible legal English” (Crystal, 2003: 374). But Legal English also has to be stable enough to stand the test of time, so that cases will be treated consistently and fairly, yet flexible enough to adapt to new social situations. Above all, [it has] to be expressed in such a way that people can Adriano Laudisio 190 be certain about the intention of the law respecting their rights and duties. (Ibid.) And it is just to reach this unambiguousness that legal English has developed a complex lexical and morpho-syntactical structure, made of lengthy sentences, repetitions, coordinated phrases and long lists of items (Ibid.). Other typical elements of a legal text are the use of semantic redeterminations, borrowings from other domains, of classical and archaic terms and unusual terms, formulae, nominalizations, and a frequent use of modal verbs, such as should and shall, bearing a performative meaning. The authors of the legal drama The Good Wife have probably found themselves in the difficult situation of striving for the most realistic representation of courts and of legal practice, including the language spoken by the lawyers, but at the same time facing that an abuse of technicalities could have led to misunderstandings by the audience. In the following scenes, it is shown how the authors of a legal drama can find a fair compromise between these two aspects which appear in dichotomy with each other: Scene I CUSTOMER: We don’t have to go to court? He just offered that? WILL: You’ll have to sign a standard confidentiality agreement. Both parties free each other of liability and agree not to speak to anyone, including the press. CUSTOMER: What? DIANE: It’s standard in civilagreements. […] CUSTOMER: I want everybody to know he settled. Can’t we tell the police? DIANE: Not if we sign a confidentiality agreement. McKeon could withdraw the award and sue you for defamation. (my emphasis) The first scene drawn from the legal drama The Good Wife is a very exhaustive example of a communicative situation where the disparity between the participants results in phenomena of popularization of a Special Language. In this case, the participants to the communication are two lawyers and their protégée, who are in the law office “Lockhart & Gardner”. The client is a stripper who has been raped by a rich business man who is now trying to accuse her of fabricating the rape to get some celebrity and/ or some money. To cover up the rape, he offers her 300,000 dollars to sign a “confidentiality agreement”. When the lawyers tell her about his offer, she does not immediately realize that he is asking to be silent in exchange of some money. This is why one of the lawyers, Will Gardner, explains: “Both parties free each other of liability and agree not to speak to anyone, including the press”. In this case, the authors choose to employ the strategy of the ‘definition’ pattern: the spe- Popularization of Medical and Legal Language in TV Series 191 cialized term is introduced first and is followed by an explanation, a description or a paraphrase which puts it in simpler words and in such a way that it can be accessible to a non expert receiver. Moreover, the legal terms used by Will are all examples of ‘semantic redetermination’, a process through which a context re-defines a word, by giving it a technical term connotation (Cavagnoli & Ioriatti Ferrari 2009: 191): “parties”, “free”, “liability” and “agree” are all words which can have a more general meaning in everyday communication and in the most varied contexts. In this case, instead, they are borrowed with precise legal meanings and connotations and refer to a potential situation of litigation. The other lawyer, Diane Lockhart, explains that this procedure is “standard in civil agreements”. This statement, though apparently marking a boundary between the lawyers who are used to these procedures, and the customer who feels like a ‘community outsider’, hides an attempt to establish inclusiveness towards the lay person. Diane lets the customer participate in the professional activities, standards and rules of the professional community of lawyers by explaining that the “compromise” corresponding to a “confidentiality agreement” is a frequent conclusion for similar cases. It may seem unfair to the customer’s eyes, but if she settles and accepts to take the money and the counterpart implicitly admits his faults, she will not have the right to make the conclusion of the lawsuit public knowledge. In addition to the definition strategy employed by Will, Diane adds some extra information to the explanation of confidentiality agreement, that is the potential consequences of not respecting it: “Mc Keon could withdraw the award and sue you for defamation”. This sentence contains many technical terms and standard formulae, but its meaning is fully comprehensible by both the customer (who is the ‘direct’ interlocutor of Diane) and the audience watching the legal drama. This is probably due to the fact that the fixed expressions used (“withdraw the award”; “sue for defamation”) are among the most popularly used, not only in legal dramas, but also in real life. Using formulaic expressions which are typical of a professional community, practice and discourse in fictional reproductions of them is certainly the most clever strategy to make it credible, and similar to reality. But it does not only have this function. With time, and with audience getting accustomed to the adoption of such formulae, they contribute to the popularization of scientific and profession-specific knowledge. The next example can show how: Scene II CARY: This is a hate crime, Your Honor, and we ask that bail be set at $100,000. […] JUDGE: Bondis set at $5,000. And I do suggest that the State reconsider its charge. […] CARY: Your Honor, the People charge Jimal Mifsud with first-degree murder. Adriano Laudisio 192 In this scene, most of the sentences pronounced by the expert speakers (the judge and Cary, who is a lawyer, in particular a State prosecutor) are made of technical and formulaic expressions. The dialogue is taking place in a court during the discussion of a lawsuit and involves two expert persons talking about types of crimes (hate crime, first degree murder), types of punishments (bail/ bond to be set, charge to be reconsidered) and roles, as Cary is asking the judge (Your Honor) to set a bail and the judge is suggesting that he (the State) reconsiders his charge against the indicted. Therefore, beyond the purely linguistic analysis, which highlights the density of highly specialized terms, of formulae, of typical collocations and morpho-syntactic structures, an analysis of the context is necessary. The participants to the communication are speaking to each other in front of an audience mostly made of other experts (but also of non expert people, who, however, are not affecting the tenor of the conversation) with the purpose to apply justice and to find the right conclusion to the lawsuit, even if this could mean the agreement on a compromise. But an important factor which has to be considered is that this is not a real lawsuit, taking place in a real court. The fictional and narrative element of the legal drama cannot be overlooked or not be taken into account. Some of the formulaic expressions used are somehow part of the fictionalizing process of legal drama: the repetition of “Your Honor”, for example, is a phenomenon particularly stressed in legal drama, especially if compared to real court cases, and is one of those features which distinguish it from real courts proceedings, but which are at the same time considered typical of them by the audience. Expressions like “charge with first-degree murder” are even more impressive for the TV audience, used to listening to such formulae and unable to imagine an episode of a legal drama without a similar condemnation. Something even more interesting is that this process of ‘standardization of formulae’ also operates interlinguistically. By means of an analysis of the Italian translations of the scripts of The Good Wife, indeed, a translation of this formula can be noticed, i.e. omicidio di primo grado as an equivalent translation for “first-degree murder”. The expression omicidio di primo grado is generally accepted by the Italian audience, even though almost all of the Italian watchers have no knowledge of what it means. The Italian legal system, in fact, distinguishes among omicidio (murder) colposo, doloso and preterintenzionale and does not assign ‘degrees’ to this crime like the US system. Nonetheless, the translation choice operated for “first-degree murder” will be omicidio di primo grado in 100% of the cases, simply because this is the formula which is generally accepted by an Italian (or, presumably, by any other not American) audience who is watching a US legal drama. For this reason, we can assume that the standardization of formulaic expressions is an example of popularization of knowledge, but it does not deal with the expression and with the transmission of specialized content; it rather operates on the purely formal level, by transmitting knowledge of the profes- Popular sional commu commu discour In a ce of kno happen on oth interac 3 C The an that th same t the sto the evo tion pa and so about s As guages show s explicit An doctor parents ing jud sarily c pected We and an ence of interac acting a comm the spe diagram This fi SLAP i mental discour claim o rization of Med practices and unity and of unity aware o rse does not rtain way, tra wledge popu n that an amo her levels whi ction accepted Conclusions nalysis of Spec he series auth time use popu ory and to ha olution of the attern, use of on), but they specialized co a consequen s can be used some formal t use of a sim example of t s in Grey’s A s; whereas, an dge and lawy completely u ’ from them. e can conclud n ‘artificial’ sp f a ‘third inte ction structur speakers (wh munication w ecialized cont m shows: nally brings t is in their com l in achieving rse communi or expect to b ical and Legal L d the discurs f its professio of such discu happen only ansmitting a m ularization, bu ount of know ch are not co d by the comm and results cial Language ors tend to re ularization st ve understan e plot. 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This mean t level, but al be considere ecessarily its smitted throu d, but related participants. es has led to t L as much as ch allow the elements whi strategies can n, use of non e purpose: in rwise be inac the conclusio ts (SLAP) in al’ contexts, o r. e case presen se simple wo one is represen nology which xpert audienc e between a ‘ narrative pur ented by the a ication made rity or dispar third element to the (fiction e difference b eal’ Special L thin professio sed in TV se l in this. The m ypical of a di ople external ns that popul so on a form d part of the nucleus. It c ugh other mea d to the stand the main con s possible, bu audience to ich are necess n be various technical syn nforming the cessible to the on that Speci two ways: th or they can m ntations made ords for the w nted by the in h, even if not ce, is someho real’ specializ rposes is in th audience. Hen e between two rity of knowle t, mostly una nal) facts, as t etween ‘real’ anguages are onal, disciplin eries, instead, message they 193 iscourse l to the ularizing mal level. process can also ans and dards of nclusion ut at the ‘follow’ sary for (defininonyms viewers em. ial Lanhey can make an e by the worried nteractt necesow ‘exzed text he presnce, the o interedge) to aware of the next SL and e instrunary and do not y should Adriano Laudisio 194 convey is not necessary to carry out any social or professional practice, but only to frame this practice as ‘entangled’ in the parallel world of a fictional context. The basic difference between the two is that SLAP has some basic narrative, fictional and entertainment purposes. To achieve more precise and satisfactory conclusions on the way TV series affect Special Languages, however, a deeper analysis of the genres “legal drama” and “medical drama” is required. They are complex examples of hybrid genre, as they have the general structural features of any TV series (that is an interwoven system of images, sounds, words, gestures, and so on), but, at the same time, peculiar linguistic elements. We can state that some specialized genres, such as “court litigation” in legal drama or “case presentation” in medical drama, are somehow “embedded” inside the macro-genre of the TV series (see also Bhatia 1994, 2002, 2004, 2012 on embedded genres). And such genres, varying according to the narrative needs of the series, do necessarily feature Special Languages. References Alcáraz Varó, E. & Hughes, B. (2002). Legal Translation Explained. Manchester: St. Jerome Publishing. Baldry, A. P. & Thibault, P. J. (2006). Multimedia Transcription and Text Analysis. London: Equinox. Bellamy, D. & Booker, R. (2006). Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease in primary care. London: Class Publishing Ltd. Bhatia, V. K. (1997). Genre-Mixing in Academic Introductions. 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The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media: Questioning the Boundaries of Genre Paola Clara Leotta (University of Catania, Italy) 1 Introduction In recent years, the presentation of psychological knowledge, understood as scientists having regular interaction - direct or mediated - with the general public, has had a significant place in the media, apparently seeking to fill the traditional gap that exists between scientific community and people in general. As Moirand (1997: 33-34) states, the press has become, in specific topics of interest, the ‘meeting point’ for scientists with the average citizen. In fact, scientists, as a very specialized community of scholars and researchers, have been secluded in universities and research centres throughout the 20 th century, lacking contact with the needs and requirements of the general public. The development of democracy and communication, as well as the increasing consciousness of the importance of science for the distribution of political power and a better quality of life through technology, have finally broken down these walls. This has been achieved through the generating of journalistic practices where scientists and science are represented and called upon to contribute to the formation of public opinion. This has not been done without distrust and misgiving on the part of experts but it can be said that nowadays the need for scientific culture is claimed as a social right and popularization has become a routinized social activity that has led to the creation of a number of fairly stable genres, with peculiar structures and styles. But, what changes does scientific discourse undergo as it travels from one rhetorical situation and genre to another? According to Calsamiglia and Van Dijk (2004), popularization discourse needs to be formulated in such a way that non-specialized readers are able to construct lay versions of specialized knowledge and integrate these with their existing knowledge. This chapter will focus on the interface of these discursive and epistemic structures and strategies of popularization, with particular reference to psychological discourse. Health information and psychological information in particular has become more and more pervasive in the media, with television, radio, newspapers, magazines, and increasingly the Internet, providing a constant and readily accessible supply of health care information and advice (see MacKay 2006). Paola Clara Leotta 198 Within the domain of magazine publishing, in particular, a significant number of titles are psychology-related. Magazines, especially women’s ones, carry significant psychology content, often detailing personal battles with depression and anxiety, for instance, as both celebrities and ordinary people tell of their experiences. As a consequence, the emergence of a ‘new’ discourse on science and on psychology, in particular, has caused questions concerning the suitability of the triangular communication model generally applied to scientific popularization, i.e. in which there is an intermediary discourse playing between the psychological science discourse and the general public. Moreover, advances in life sciences mean that patients want to know about their illnesses to be able to manage them properly. This in turn throws into relief the communicative aspects of medical practice and highlights the resources that can be, and are being, used in interactions between doctors and patients. This rise of “mediacy” (Baldry & Thibault 2006) is reshaping the field of English for Psychological Studies, understanding how texts (taken in the Hallidayan sense of units of meaning) (Halliday 1978) work and how their workings in specific contexts of situation and culture can be described. This chapter takes into consideration some of the “re-draftings” through which selected magazines provide psychological advice to lay audiences, thus showing an analogy between popularization and translation. In fact, both processes tend to produce a “dynamic equivalent” (Nida 1964) of the source text, being characterized by frequent recourse to different forms of definition, reformulation and explanation. 2 Methods Drawing on several corpora, a collection of 35 research articles published in Nature (No. 35/ 2010) 1 ; an article published in Current Pharmaceutical Design (No. 10/ 2004) 2 ; an article from Clinical Psychology Review 3 (No. 26/ 2006); an 1 Nature is a U.S monthly peer-reviewed journal publishing research articles, reviews, news and commentaries in the biomedical area, including both basic research and early-phase clinical research covering all aspects of medicine. 2 Current Pharmaceutical Design publishes timely in-depth reviews and research articles from leading pharmaceutical researchers in the field, covering all aspects of current research in rational drug design. Each issue is devoted to a single major therapeutic area guest edited by an acknowledged authority in the field. Each thematic issue of Current Pharmaceutical Design covers all subject areas of major importance to modern drug design including: medicinal chemistry, pharmacology, drug targets and disease mechanism. 3 It publishes substantive reviews of topics germane to clinical psychology. Papers cover diverse issues including: psychopathology, psychotherapy, behavior therapy, cognition and cognitive therapies, behavioral medicine, community mental health, assessment, and child development. The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media 199 article from European Neuropsychopharmacology 4 (No. 21/ 2011); an article from Psychiatric Services 5 (No. 6/ 1998); and a sample of four popular science articles belonging to the famous American women/ healthy lifestyle magazine Prevention 6 (December 2011), I explore how writers deal with anxiety disorders. The model used to study the pragmatic functions of the discourse on anxiety disorders is based essentially on Calsamiglia and van Dijk (2004). The comparison between the articles in Prevention and the articles from Nature, Current Pharmaceutical Design (No. 10/ 2004), Clinical Psychology Review (No. 26/ 2006), European Neuropsychopharmacology (No. 21/ 2011), and Psychiatric Services (No. 6/ 1998), used as source texts, highlights the journalists’ evident effort to simplify the sentence structure, shorten sentence length and express notions as plainly as possible. As we will show, articles in Prevention tend to exhibit a consistently high frequency of strategies aimed at clarifying notions, concepts, as well as the meaning of specialized terms and “difficult” words, a set of practices which may be categorized collectively under the general heading of explanation. Within this general heading, Calsamiglia and van Dijk (2004) list the following popularizing strategies which we briefly list before putting them into analysis: DENOMINATION OR DESIGNATION: introducing new objects, events or terms, for instance, with neologisms or metaphors; DEFINITION: the conceptual delimitation of a term by a brief description of some general and specific properties of the thing the term is referring to. It often follows the denomination, to explain unknown words, and unknown things. As Gotti (1996) states, Nei testi divulgativi […] il momento definitorio prevede raramente il riferimento ad un codificatore preciso; in genere si preferisce far ricorso a forme impersonali o passive […]. Un altro modo che il locutore utilizza per mantenersi nel vago per quanto concerne la paternità di una certa definizione consiste nel riferimento ad un’intera categoria disciplinare. (1996: 225). 4 European Neuropsychopharmacology is the official journal of the European College of Neuropsychopharmacology. Its scope encompasses clinical and basic research relevant to the effectsof centrally acting agents in its broadest sense. 5 It is a peer-reviewedacademic journal publishing research on psychiatry. It is published monthly by American Psychiatric Association (APA). 6 The range of its subjects includes food, nutrition, workouts, beauty, and cooking. Prevention is one of the largest magazines in the world, with a 2.8 million circulation, editions around the world, and over 10,000,000 readers a month. Paola Clara Leotta 200 REFORMULATION OR PARAPHRASE: a discourse fragment that is easier to understand than the original discourse fragment, and that has more or less the same meaning, formally marked by relative clauses, appositions, parentheses, dashes, quotes and metalinguistic expressions ; ANALOGY OR ASSOCIATION: a comparison with an area or objects that are certainly known to the layman or easier to understand - as is the case for similes and metaphors; GENERALIZATION: a proposition that extends the validity of a proposition to all or most members of a set; EXEMPLIFICATION: one or more propositions that are instantiations of a more general proposition. It means providing specific examples of general phenomena. Such stories and mental models are often easier to remember than general knowledge and hence are quite useful as an explanatory device in didactic and popularization discourse. In addition to Calsamiglia and van Dijk’s model, another recurrent strategy is that of explication proper, whereby the reader is offered information which enriches his/ her knowledge of the subject matter treated, thus increasing artificially the degree of shared knowledge between expert-journalist and laymanreader. 3 Results After the delimitation of the object of our study and the presentation of the corpus, in the present section we proceed to study the role and position of these psychological “voices”. In doing so, we will explore facets of the discourse used to present psychological knowledge to a public of experts by comparing examples with the same research reported in a popular magazine. Let us begin with a few examples. Nature Prevention (text 1) CATEGORY General Anxiety Disorder DENOMINATION They are extremely common in the general population. Anxiety disorders are associated with impaired workplace performance and hefty economic costs, as well as an increased risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. Affects about 6.8 million adults and is often accompanied by other anxiety disorders, depression or substance abuse. EXPLICATION The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media 201 Key components of fear circuitry, including the amygdale, nucleus accumbens, hippocampus, ventromedial hypothalamus, periaqueductal gray, a number of brain stem nuclei, thalamic nuclei, insular cortex, and some prefrontal regions, have their respective roles in the various components of fear processing such as the perception of threat or of unconditioned stimuli, the pairing of an unconditioned stimulus and conditioned response, the execution of efferent components of fear response, and the modulation of fear responses through potentiation, contextual modulation, or extinction. have recurring fears and worries and a looming sense that something bad is about to happen. GENERALIZATION Panic Disorder DENOMINATION Affects about 6 million American adults and is characterized by emotional symptoms DENOMINATION A panic attack is a discrete episode of intense fear, discomfort, and sympathetic nervous system arousal that occurs in the absence of true danger. such as sudden waves of terror, and physical symptoms such as a pounding heart, sweatiness, chest pain, faintness, or dizziness. EXEMPLIFICATION According to one of the neurocircuitry models of panic disorder, the ‘fear network’, which includes the amygdala, hippocampus, thalamus, and brain stem structures, is hypersensitive. Furthermore, frontal cortex fails to provide topdown inhibitory input to the amygdala, leading to exag- Panic attacks usually come with an intense fear of losing control. EXPLICATION Paola Clara Leotta 202 gerated amygdala activation and unnecessary activation of the entire fear network, resulting in a panic attack. Obsessive Compulsive Disorder DENOMINATION Patients with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) experience recurrent, unwanted thoughts or images (obsessions) that cause distress, and engage in excessive ritualistic behaviors or mental acts (compulsions) that are typically carried out in response to the obsessions. have uncontrollable or unwanted thoughts (obsessions) and use rituals (compulsions) DENOMINATION An example might be excessive handwashing to rid one of a fear of germs. EXEMPLIFICATION Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: PTSD DENOMINATION PTSD can develop in individuals who were exposed to an event or events that involved the threat of death or serious injury and reacted with intense fear, helplessness or horror. Individuals with PTSD reexperience the traumatic event in the form of nightmares, intrusive recollections, flashbacks, and physiological arousal and distress in response to reminders of trauma. affects about 7.7 million Americans and develops after a traumatic event happens EXPLICATION such as a crime, natural disaster, or emotional trauma EXEMPLIFICATION People with PTSD DENOMINATION These patients may attempt to avoid reminders of the trauma and may experience a restricted range of effect, especially may be extremely on edge ANALOGY The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media 203 positive effect. Finally, patients with PTSD report hyperarousal symptoms, such as hypervigilance, exaggerated startle, and difficulty sleeping or concentrating. Portions of the vmPFC (including the rACC) are hyporesponsive and fail to inhibit the amygdala. It is not clear which of the two regions ‘drives’ the overall outcome, but a hyperresponsive amygdale and hyporesponsive mPFC may potentially lead to deficits in extinction, emotion regulation, attention, and contextual processing. become emotionally numb and lose interest in things they used to enjoy, and even act aggressive GENERALIZATION Social Phobia: DENOMINATION Also called social anxiety disorder REFORMULATION it affects about 15 million adults EXPLICATION It is characterized by a marked and persistent fear of social or performance situations involving possible scrutiny by others. Social phobia is an extreme fear of social settings or public places DEFINITION The genetic predisposition for social phobia has been supported by the finding that social phobia patients with a short allele of the serotonin transporter polymorphism had greater amygdala responses during public speaking compared to those with long alleles. Finally, amygdala activation during public speaking in social phobia appears to decrease with successful treatment. And sufferers are overwhelmingly anxious and excessively self-conscious in everyday social situations. GENERALIZATION The fear of embarrassment and distress can lead to avoidance of social situations and impairment in social, occupational, They have an intense fear of being watched and judged by others and of EXPLICATION Paola Clara Leotta 204 and academic functioning. The amygdala and medial prefrontal cortex have been considered important regions of interest in this disorder. doing things that may cause them embarassment Here we have some simple cohesive short texts, characterized by a linear thematic structure, with the same theme carried forward for the whole paragraph, which realizes what can be considered to be the first essential move in all popularized texts: denominating and defining the object of investigation. In fact, the popularizing strategy mostly deployed here is denomination (8 times). All the rest of target text 1 is taken up by forms of explanatory discourse, which is also a technique that recurs in popularization. In terms of text types, target text 1 is expository, being mainly constituted by phenomenon-identifying and phenomenon-linking sentences. In this case it consists essentially in objective exposition, featuring the text form variants of denomination and explication. Nature Prevention (text 2) CATEGORY Key components of fear circuitry[…] have their respective roles in the various components of fear processing such as the perception of threat or of unconditioned stimuli. Anxiety is a vague, pit-of-the-stomach dread that sneaks up on you. DEFINITION This was interpreted as potentially representing a hypermetabolic state in the right medial temporal region. Lingering anxiety can keep you up at night, make you irritable, undermine your ability to concentrate, and either ruin your appetite or precipitate Olympian eating binges. EXPLICATION The alpha-2 adrenergic antagonist yohimbine has been associated with increased normalized blood flow in medial prefrontal cortex, insular cortex, and cerebellum in healthy individuals. And the constant state of readiness generated by anxiety - adrenaline pumping, heart racing, palms sweatingmay contribute to EXEMPLIFICATION The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media 205 high blood pressure and heart disease Although it is quite possible that PTSD and panic disorder indeed share similar pathophysiological components, it will be important in the future to identify abnormalities that are disorder specific and are responsible for disorderspecific symptomatology. To diagnose whether your anxiety is merely an ongoing case of the jitters … ANALOGY This scientific article is characterized by the recourse to specific vocabulary in the scientific text, and to nominalization, in particular, which is a distinctive feature of all types of specialized discourse. In terms of text types, the texts are descriptive and more specifically, they are the kinds of descriptive texts that Werlich (1983) defines “technical description”, in which “the encoder presents phenomena from the point of view of objective observation in space”. He deliberately chooses words so that his subjective impression and reactions are excluded from the description. Special attention must be given to the use of analogy, being one of the main semantic means of establishing links between two domains of experience, meaning or knowledge. It is therefore not surprising that analogy and metaphors play a prominent role in popularization discourse. This is especially true in the case of psychology. Nature Prevention (text 3) CATEGORY Several studies have reported decreased GABAbenzodiazepine and 5-HT 1A receptor binding in the amygdala, medial prefrontal cortex, insular cortex, and brain stem in panic disorder. While some prescription drugs can help you calm down by influencing levels of GABA, a brain chemical that improves mood and decreases distress… EXPLICATION Patients taking antidepressants have been found to decrease amygdala activation. Common medications for treating anxiety disorders include antidepressants such as SSRIs, anti-anxiety drugs such as Xanax, and beta-blockers such as propranolol to control some of the physical symptoms. DENOMINATION Paola Clara Leotta 206 As we have already noticed, in addition to the explanatory practices included in our model, another recurrent strategy is that of explication proper (GABA, a brain chemical that improves mood and decreases distress), whereby readers are offered information which enriches their knowledge of GABA. This way, the degree of shared knowledge between journalist and readers (potentially women) is increased. As far as denomination is concerned, in the above paragraph the journalist relies on the fact that in line of principle women should have a basic knowledge of common antidepressants. Current Pharmaceutical Design Prevention(text 3) CATEGORY An increasing number of case reports have demonstrated that the use of SSRIs and new antipsychotics (e.g. clozapine, olanzapine, risperidone, sertindole, aripiprazole, ziprasidone, quietiapine) is associated with cases of arrhythmias, prolonged QTc interval on electrocardiogram (ECG) and orthostatic hypotension in patients lacking cardiovascular disorders. Prescription drugs also can come with a slew of side effects, including dizziness, drowsiness, and forgetfulness, not to mention withdrawal symptoms after you stop taking them. EXEMPLIFICATION In this paragraph, exemplification is clear in the list of examples of side effects of prescription drugs. This means that the proposition from Prevention has to be considered as an instantiation of a more general proposition, dealing with medical terms. The task of the mediator - in our case the journalist with some training in psychology - could be viewed as a translation work of a specialized level of language into one accessible to the layperson. But we have to take into consideration the fact that the effects of scientific communication on larger social sectors can, in turn, have an impact on the ‘original’ texts produced by scholars in the field of psychology. In any case, producing a science popularization text basically means re-contextualizing and reformulating one’s source in such a way that it is comprehensible and relevant for a different kind of addressee, in a discursive context that differs from that of the ‘original’ text. The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media 207 Clinical Psychology Review Prevention (text 3) CATEGORY CBT is associated with large improvements in symptoms for bulimia nervosa , and the associated effect sizes are significantly larger than those that have been found for pharmacotherapy. CBT also has shown promising results as an adjunct to pharmacotherapy in the treatment of schizophrenia. Cognitivebehavioral therapy (CBT) is a form of psychotherapy that has been shown to be effective GENERALIZATION A defining feature of cognitivebehavioral therapy is the proposition that symptoms and dysfunctional behaviors are often cognitively mediated and, hence, improvement can be produced by modifying dysfunctional thinking and beliefs. Patients also learn how their thoughts contribute to their anxiety, and how to change those patterns to control anxious reactions in a safe setting. EXPLICATION This scientific text is written for a professional audience with a high degree of specialized expertise. Information is presented with considerable exactness, foregrounding procedures and using technical jargon, nominalizations, precise measurements, cautious inferences from data, and acronyms. It is a discourse of exclusivity underpinned by a specialized knowledge of methods and of the meanings the results have for insiders. Popular science, in contrast, is produced for audiences without a professional need for information about science but who want to keep abreast of developments. Here the focus is more explicitly concerned with the connection between antidepressants and the brain, which is likely to be of greater interest to lay readers than the precise methodological procedures. These language choices ask readers to recognise something as familiar or accepted. European Neuropsychopharmacology Prevention (text 4) CATEGORY Several herbal medicines revealed an array of pre-clinical antidepressant activity. Unless you suffer from severe, debilitating anxiety, consider trying natural approaches before prescription drugs GENERALIZATION Paola Clara Leotta 208 Some antidepressant herbal medicines, such as Rhodiola rosea, offer promise for the treatment of this disorder via known psychopharmacological actions including inhibition of monoamine re-uptake (such as serotonin, dopamine and noradrenaline), enhanced binding and sensitization of serotonin receptors, monoamine oxidase inhibition, and neuro-endocrine modulation. Rhodiola has been used worldwide for centuries to quell anxiety and strengthen mental stamina EXPLICATION Through these examples of generalization and explication, a new type of discourse on science has appeared, which rather than simply replacing the existing one, exists alongside it, doubling it up. The mediator’s position is in between the actual linguistic output of the scientific community (scholars in psychology and psychiatry) and the public of women readers. Rather than ‘explaining’ science, discourse in Prevention sets out to show the social meaning of the propositions; hence the shifting of the objects of discourse in the direction of issues which are not merely scientific. Psychiatric Services Prevention (text 4) CATEGORY Among patients who participated in animal-assisted therapy, patients with mood disorders, psychotic disorders, and other disorders had a significant mean decrease in anxiety. This finding suggests that animal-assisted therapy reduces anxiety for a wider range of patients than the comparison condition of therapeuticrecreation. An astonishing 82% of PTSD patients paired with a service dog reported a significant reduction in symptoms, and 40% were able to decrease their medications EXEMPLIFICATION Here the focus is more explicitly concerned with the connection between pet therapy and anxiety, which is likely to be of greater interest to lay readers than the precise methodological procedures. This language choice asks readers to recognise something as familiar or accepted. In contrast to the research report, popularization places an emphasis on the “actors”. Priority is given to The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media 209 the potential payoffs of the research and results, rather than the means of obtaining them. 4 Discussion This chapter has tried to criticize the dominant view of the popularization of psychology that takes it as a one-way process of simplification, one in which scientific articles are the originals of knowledge that is then debased by translation for a public that is ignorant of such matters, a blank slate. As we have seen, excerpts from Prevention provide excellent material in which specialized vocabulary and scientific accuracy are integrated into a text that is syntactically complex, but characterized by accessibility and clarity. The difference is just in terms of genres. In fact, genres can be considered as instruments of socialization (see Miller 1984) which enable the individual to realize his intentions, thus meeting his communicative needs, by means of socially produced textual forms forged in time as the most suitable for an action that is rhetorically effective and recognizable by recipients. In light of these considerations, it may be concluded that this type of material can be used successfully by the lay public, to help women (in particular) acquire a good command of the linguistic patterns specific to psychological discourse, while at the same time offering them an opportunity to learn the basic lexicon of the various specialized domains within the discipline of psychology. The analysis of the 43 texts in our corpus has focused on semantic strategies of explanation. That is, we have explored the interface between psychological discourse and the underlying structures and management of knowledge: how do people learn about new things? How does popularizing discourse manage its means so as to enable or improve such understanding and learning? As Whitley (1985) states: Any communication of knowledge claims involves some re-description which subtly alters them so that the popularization of true knowledge to a wide audience results in alterations to it. This is not simply a matter of ‘distortion’ of the true message, but is rather an inevitable concomitant of translation from one system of discourse to another. The greater the linguistic and cognitive distance between such systems, the more alteration occurs. (1985: 7) As society changes, so do its texts and genres and the ways that information and knowledge, facts and opinions are constructed and communicated to others. This is the main reason why we have dealt with the discursive and epistemic structures of popularizing discourse in the press, after commenting on our concept of science popularization. In this framework, this paper has aimed at studying the linguistic-discursive structures of the ways in which science is reported in the written me- Paola Clara Leotta 210 dia of mass communication, that is, outside the realm of science itself. In this sense, our investigation is in line with research on the discourses of science popularization by several other authors (Gotti 1996; Gotti 2011; Calsamiglia, 1997, 2003,2012; Ciapuscio, 1993, 2001; Jacobi, 1999; .Moirand, 1997; Myers, 2003). In this work, we have noticed not only the study of popularization discourse in general, or popularization in the press in particular, but also the special attention paid to the detailed structures of text and talk that play a role in the presentation of knowledge that is difficult to be accessed by non specialized readers. Thus, as we have shown, popularization is a social process consisting of a large class of discursive-semiotic practices, which can involve many types of mass media, books, the Internet, exhibitions and other genres of communicative events, aiming at communicating lay versions of scientific knowledge, as well as opinions and ideologies of scholars, among the public at large. In addition, it is not primarily characterized by specific textual structures, but rather by the properties of the communicative context: participants and participant roles, their respective purposes, beliefs and knowledge; as well as the relevance of such knowledge in everyday lives. In fact, popularization involves not only a reformulation, but also a re-contextualization of scientific knowledge and discourse that is originally produced in specialized contexts to which the lay public has limited access. The role of the mass media is fundamental, because they actively contribute in the production of new, common knowledge and opinions about science and psychology-in particular - including information and views that do not derive from scientific sources. In sum, psychology journalism works as journalism rather than science. It is written in ways which make the research accessible and allow nonspecialists to recover the interpretive voice of the scientist, thus representing phenomena in different ways to achieve different purposes. 7 References Baldry, A./ Thibault, P.J., 2006. Multimodal Transcription and Text Analysis: A Multimedia Toolkit and Coursebook. Sheffield: Equinox. Calsamiglia, H., 1997. La parla com a espectacle. Bellaterra: Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona. Calsamiglia, H. 2003. Popularization Discourse and Knowlwdge about the Genome. Discourse Studies, 5/ 2, 139-146. Calsamiglia, H./ Van Dijk, A., 2004. Popularization Discourse and Knowledge about the Genome. Discourse & Society 15, 369-389. Calsamiglia, H./ Tuson Valls, A., 2012. Las cosas del decir: manual de analisis del discurso. Barcelona: Ariel Letras. 7 For further reading, see Fahnestock, J. 1986. Accomodating Science: the Rhetorical Life of Scientific Facts. Written Communication 3, 275-96. The Popularization of Psychological Discourse in the Media 211 Ciapuscio, G.E., 1993. Reformulacion textual: el caso de las noticias de divulgacion scientifica.Revista Argentina de Linguistica, 9-1/ 2, 69-117. Ciapuscio, G.E., 2001.Los conectores reformulativos: el caso de «es decir». In De Arnoux, E. / Di Tullio, A. (eds.), Homenaje a Ofelia Kovacci, Buenos Aires: Eudeba, 157-171. Fahnestock, J., 1986. Accomodating Science: the Rhetorical Life of Scientific Facts. WrittenCommunication, 3, 275-296. Gotti, M., 1996. Il linguaggio della divulgazione: problematiche di traduzione interlinguistica, in Cortese, G. (ed.), Tradurre i linguaggi settoriali. Torino: Edizioni Libreria Cortina, 217-235. Gotti, M./ Salager-Meyer, F. (eds) 2006. Advances in Medical Discourse Analysis: Oral and Written Contexts. Bern: Peter Lang. Gotti, M., 2011. Investigating Specialized Discourse. Bern: Peter Lang. Halliday, M.A.K., 1978. Language as Social Semiotic: The Social Interpretation of language and meaning. London: Arnold. Jacobi, J., 1999.Complex, Archetype, Symbol in the Psychology of C.G. Jung. London: Routledge. Miller, C.R., 1984. Rhetorical Community: the Cultural Basis of Genre, in Freedman, A./ Medway, P. (eds), Genre In The New Rhetoric. London: Taylor & Francis. Moirand, S., 1997. Formes discursives de la diffusion des savoirs dans les medias. Hermès 21, 33-34. Moirand, S. 2003. Communicative and Cognitive Dimensions of Discourse on Scienceinthe French Mass Media. Discourse Studies 5, 175-206. Myers, G. 2003. Discourse Studies of Scientific Popularization: Questioning the Boundaries. Discourse Studies 5/ 2, 265-279. Nida, E., 1964. Toward a Science of Translating.Leiden: Brill. Werlich, E., 1983, A Text Grammar of English, Heidelberg: Quelle and Meyer. Whitley, R., 1985. Knowledge Producers and Knowledge Acquirers: Popularisation as a Relation between Scientific Fields and their Publics. In Shinn, T./ Whitley, R. (eds), Expository Science: Forms and Functions of Popularization. Dordrecht: Reidel, 3-28. Widdowson, H.G., 1979. Explorations in Applied Linguistics. Oxford: O.U.P. Clinical Psychology Review, No. 26/ 2006. Current Pharmaceutical Design, No. 10/ 2004. European Neuropsychopharmacology, No. 21/ 2011. Nature, No. 35/ 2010. Prevention, December 2011. Psychiatric Services, No. 6/ 1998. White Paper on Governance: EU Attempt to Popularize Legal Discourse? Giulia Adriana Pennisi (University of Palermo, Italy) 1 Introduction According to the canonical view of popularization, it is assumed that specialists and lay audiences are divided by a huge communication gap. As Myers (2003a) observes: “this would certainly seem to be true, when as academics we browse in any section of the library apart from our own, or when we see how topics from our own specialist subjects are reported (if they are reported at all) in the media” (2003a: 267). More recently, several scholars (Hilgartner 1990; Grundmann and Cavaillé 2000; Bensaude-Vincent 2001; Gulich 2003; Myers 2003a, 2003b; Danette 2004) have challenged the assumptions underlying the canonical view arguing that popularization is a matter of degree rather than of a genre distinct from that of specialized communities. In particular, popularization is now seen as re-contextualization, which implies a process of continuous adaptation of popularizing discourse to the conditions of the new communicative events and to the various constraints of the media employed (Whitley 1985; Kermas and Christiansen 2013). This, in turn, involves a transformation of the specialized discourse as the knowledge to be disseminated is adapted to different communicative situation(s) for the lay audience(s). It is therefore the case that the selection of the ways of expressing and formulating texts in genres specific to communication, within specific scientific disciplines, poses a formidable challenge. “What is called into question”, Calsamiglia (2003) argues, “is not just the treatment of scientific information for the public (the textualization of the other way of looking at it), but also how to bring the working style of the scientists closer to the style of those in other trades and professions” (2003: 141). While popularization has been widely investigated in scientific fields, its presence in legal domains awaits closer investigation. Unlike many other forms of language use, legal contexts give rise to generic artifacts that are multifaceted and multidimensional, in that they are constructed as a result of the efforts of a number of participants, or ‘adversaries’ as Bhatia (2004) calls them, “who are supposed to be collaborating in the process to create a truly impersonal document” (2004: 141). Any research into legal communication, therefore, needs to connect the macro-discourse features of the social formation with the micro-discourse features of the interaction order through a close exploration of the communication site which, in addition to a lexico- Giulia Adriana Pennisi 214 grammatical analysis, inevitably involves a socio-cultural approach. As Candlin (2006) observes, in conducting the analysis of discourse in such sites we are always making assumptions about social organization and social processes. Any analysis of text which aspires to some explanatory rather than merely descriptive adequacy presupposes an engagement with social action within the context of the institution in question, and needs to take account of the distinctive perspectives of the involved participants. (2006: 25). This is all the more evident in the case of legal discourse among the European institutions, where analysis conducted by eminent scholars working in this field reveals a recent increase in the intentional use of lexico-grammatical and socio-pragmatic resources that are strategically exploited to mould the norms/ conventions typical of public documents and consultation documents to promote a positive image of the EU Institutions (Gotti et al.2002; Bhatia 2004). The present study was conducted on a selection of White Papers issued between the late 1980s and 2000s to shed light on the possible range and functions of popularization in the European discourse. The findings of this analysis will be discussed and interpreted also bearing in mind that popularization is “a matter of interaction as well as information: it involves persons and identities as well as messages” (Myers 2003a) to see if White Papers in general, and The White Paper on Governance of 2001 in particular, might be taken as an important step towards a more accessible European Union legal information. 2 Data observed Since the 1990s the discourse on the relationship between the European institutions and Member States in the field of European action has changed significantly. In this regard, the White Paperon Governance (Brussels, 25.7.2001 - COM(2001)428final) contains suggestions and proposals to improve fair and equal treatment for everyone in the institutions of the European Union (henceforth EU) and their right to take part in making decisions. It is better to consider the definition of White Paper provided by the Official EU Institutions Glossary website first, and investigate the meaning of the term governance afterwards. As we read, Commission White Papers are documents containing proposals for Community action in a specific area. In some cases they follow a Green Paper published to launch a consultation process at European level. When a White Paper is favorably received by the Council, it can lead to an action programme for the Union in the area concerned. Examples are the White Papers on Completion of the Internal Market (1985), on Growth, Competitiveness , Employment (1993) and on European Governance (2001). More recently, the White Paper on Services of General Interest (2004) and that White Paper on Governance: EU attempt to popularize legal discourse? 215 on a European Communication Policy (2006) have also moulded the development of Community policies. (my emphasis) It is therefore among the priorities of the European Commission to sound out public opinion before proposing new EU laws. This takes the shape of Green Papers that are discussion documents which the institution produces in an effort to stimulate debate on areas it believes merit the attention of the Union’s lawmakers. After the publication of a Green Paper, the Commission asks all interested parties to produce comments on the document by a given deadline. Once all the answers have been collected, the Commission decides whether or not it believes a new policy is needed. If the Commission does believe so, it publishes a White Paper explaining what it thinks this policy should be and drawing up detailed proposals for legislation based on the White Paper. The debate on European governance, launched by the Commission in its White Paper on Governance, concerns all the rules, procedures and practices affecting how powers are exercised within the European Union. The aim is to adopt new forms of governance that bring the Union closer to European citizens, make it more effective, reinforce democracy in Europe and consolidate the legitimacy of the institutions. According to the European Commission, the term governance may have a number of meanings (Rhodes 1999; Jouve and Lefevre 2002; Welz 2008): in both corporate and State contexts, the term governance refers to the exercise of power overall and embraces both the action by executive bodies and / or assemblies (e.g. national parliaments) and judicial bodies (e.g. national courts and tribunals); the term governance might correspond to the so-called postmodern form of economic and political organizations; the concept of governance is currently used in contemporary social sciences with at least six different meanings, such as: minimal State, corporate governance, new public management, good governance, socialcybernetic systems, and self-organized networks; the European Commission establishes its own concept of governance in the White Paper on European Governance, in which the term European governance refers to “the rules, processes and behaviour that affect the way in which powers are exercised at European level, particularly as regards openness, participation, accountability, effectiveness and coherence. These five principles of good governance reinforce those of subsidiarity and proportionality”. (European Commission, Brussels 25.7.2001 - COM(2001)428final) Governance is, therefore, a flexible term that might be used in connection with several contemporary social sciences, especially economics and political science. It originates from the need of economics (as in the case of ‘corporate governance’) and political science (as in the case of ‘State governance’) for an Giulia Adriana Pennisi 216 all-embracing concept capable of conveying diverse meanings not covered by the more traditional term ‘government’ (Welz 2008). The present study is based on a corpus of 5 White Papers (for a total amount of 133,416 words) that have been selected according to what is stated by the Official EU Institutions Glossary Website immediately after the definition of Commission White Papers reported above. More specifically, White Paper on Completion of Internal Market 1985 (WP-CIM 1985); White Paper on Growth, Competitiveness, Employment 1993 (WP-GCE 1993); European Governance. A White Paper 2001 (WP-EG 2001); White Paper on Services of General Interest 2004 (WP-SGI 2004); and White Paper on a European Communication Policy 2006 (WP-ECP 2006). The information on the intended scope and readership of these documents have been collected from the description in the EU official website, whose main points are listed below 1 : WP-CIM 1985 In January 1985, the President of the Commission, JaquesDelors, forcefully declared that in order to achieve the main objective of the EEC Treaty, the creation of a single market, all internal European borders should be eliminated by the end of 1992. Therefore, in June 1985 the Commission forwarded to the European Council a “white paper” on completing the internal market [COM/ 85/ 0310]. The Milan European Council (28-June 1985) welcomed the programme established in the white paper and decided, by a majority of its members, to call an intergovernmental conference with the brief of drawing up a draft Treaty covering, on the one hand, political cooperation and, on the other, the amendments to the EEC Treaty required for the completion of the internal market [...] By making significant changes to the Community decision-making process (qualified majority voting in the acting in cooperation with the European Parliament), the Single Act not only succeeded in removing the technical barriers to trade, thus creating the Single Market, but has had important spillover effects [on many common policies, such as transport, taxation and environment protection]. WP-GCE 1993 Conclusions of the Commission White Paper on ‘Growth, competitiveness, and employment’, which was approved by the European Council on 11 December 1993 and recommends increased cooperation in research and development, the adoption of a new development model taking into account the environment and qualitative needs, and action to be taken regarding the employment market. WP-EG 2001 1 My emphasis here and there. White Paper on Governance: EU attempt to popularize legal discourse? 217 The European Commission here presents its White Paper on European Governance to the wider public. The Paper contains a set of recommendations on how to enhance democracy in Europe and increase the legitimacy of the institutions. The main recommendations of the White Paper are based on twelve reports, two studies and intense consultation of European, national and regional actors, as well as academics and European citizens. WP-SGI 2004 Presented as an extension of the Green Paper on services of general interest, the Commission White Paper describes the European Union’s strategy for promoting the development of high-quality services of general interest. It presents the main elements of a strategy aimed at ensuring that all citizens and enterprises in the Union have access to high-quality and affordable services of general interest. WP-ECP 2006 In order to bridge the gap between the European Union and its citizens, the Commission has decided to make communication a policy in its own right. This White Paper thus aims to create a European public space, and to achieve this it puts forward five areas for action to help citizens obtain information and express their opinions. Beyond the promotional emphasis on overall quality/ impact, the information on the intended scope and readership of these documents shows a tendency to embrace a range of concerns and audiences (Giannoni 2008) and demonstrates the European Commission’s effort to reconcile both professionals’ aims and laypersons’ needs. The investigation of these texts will show how European institutions reshape and increasingly popularize their discourse(s) in order to provide communicative response to the global socio-economic change and the need to encounter the general public on issues that are not usually accessible. In particular, the legislative documents included in the corpus will be presented as a combination of different discourses that, partly because of their interdiscursive relations between them and partly through the intentional use of lexicogrammatical and socio-pragmatic resources (Bhatia 2004, 2008a; Candlin and Hyland 2004), are strategically exploited to mould the norms/ conventions typical of public documents such as White Papers and consultation documents to make the production of the related legal texts available and easily understood by the lay public (Bhatia 2002, 2004; Hyland 2005). 3 Research findings The corpus has been closely investigated for evidence of the popularizing features (such as contingency and humor) associated with legal/ institutional communication, and its main textual and discursive strategies, used to make the text more engaging (such as questions, metaphors, appeals to the reader Giulia Adriana Pennisi 218 and marked lexis). First I located the occurrence of each feature (normalized per 1,000 words) in the target texts (Table 1), and then I verified their actual status on contextual and pragmatic ground (Subsections 3.1-3.6). WP-CIM 1985 WP-GCE 1993 WP-EG 2001 WP-SGI 2004 WP-ECP 2006 questions 13 occ. 3 occ. 6 occ. metaphors 1 occ. 10 occ. markedlexis 2 occ. 3 occ. 45 occ. 6 occ. 4 occ. appeals to the reader 32 occ. 1 occ. 3 occ. contingency 18 occ. 2 occ. 1 occ. humour 4 occ. % 0,06 0,8 2,43 0,13 0,18 Total 2 occ. 17 occ. 112 occ. 9 occ. 14 occ. Table 1 Popularizing features in White Papers As Table 1 shows, there is a number of differences in the frequency and distribution of popularizing features. First of all, the variation is more evident between the White Papers issued before and after 2000s, although the number of occurrences in the WP-SGI 2004 (9 occ.) and WP-ECP 2006 (14 occ.) is far less than those in WP-EG 2001 (112 occ.). While questions are quite high in WP-GCE 1993 (13 occ.), the only popularizing feature present in both WP- CIM 1985 (2 occ.) and WP-GCE 1993 (3 occ.) is marked lexis. Although marked lexis (6 occ. vs. 4 occ.), appeals to the reader (1 occ. vs. 3 occ.) and contingency (2 occ. vs. 1 occ.) are respectively present in both WP- SGI 2004 and WP-ECP 2006 with an increase in their number in the latter, they are strikingly present in the WP-EG 2001. 3.1 Questions: dialogic involvement and organization of text Particularly common in pedagogic genres where reader attention cannot be taken for granted, questions constitute the strategy of dialogic involvements engaging the reader in the conversation/ argument by challenging him/ her to think about the issue under discussion and/ or acknowledge alternative views (Swales 1990; Hyland 2002; Giannoni 2008). Generally speaking, questions, whether they are interrogative or not in structure, imply an answer; those questions that assume an obvious answer are strictly speaking rhetorical. All the questions in the target texts have been recognized by the use of a closing question mark. Then they have been extracted and classified according to their main rhetorical function. More specifically, White Paper on Governance: EU attempt to popularize legal discourse? 219 a) some questions are used confrontationally, that is, to challenge other views in the field: Carrying these actions forward does not necessarily require new Treaties. It is first and foremost a question of political will. It is part of a wider process. Changing the way the Union works calls not only for a response from the Commission, but also from all those interested, particularly the Council, the European Parliament, the Member States and European citizens […]But what will really change if these proposals are implemented? At the heart of the proposed reform of governance is the refocusing of the Institutions […] A renewed Community method as the model for future: In the first place this is to respond to the public’s frequent question “who does what in Europe? ” A common vision is needed to answer this question (WP-EG 2001); b) some questions are used to signal uncertainties, referred by Giannoni (2008: 218) as ‘soul searching’, whose main purpose is to communicate a sense of uncertainty, generally with regard to European institutions’ work. Rather than an authoritative source of professional commentary, the EU Commission conveys the impression of a human appealing for sympathy from members of the Commission (i.e. EU institutions): How, then, can we explain the fact that all these achievements have not made it possible at least to cushion the effects of the world recession? Was the single market process merely a flash in the pan? The truth is that although we have changed, the rest of the world has changed even faster (WP-GCE 1993); c) few questions function as reported interrogative questions/ semi-indirect speech: Today we are perhaps seeing the beginnings of an equally important leap forward with the very rapid integration into world trade of developing countries and former communist countries. Where is the Growth? […] The Community must be open and prepare itself for this prospect. This is why the conclusion of the Uruguay Round negotiations is of such importance for it too (WP-GCE 1993); d) another function is to organize the text by pointing to information provided later on in the text, as a ‘reader-friendly’ strategy to organize text(Hyland 2002) such as the debate on the future of Europe and the scope of the White Paper. Most of the questions found in WP-GCE 1993 perform this function, even though both WP-EG 2001 and WP-ECP 2006 present instances of them: WHY REFORM EUROPEAN OVERNANCE? European integration has delivered fifty years of stability, peace and economic prosperity. It has Giulia Adriana Pennisi 220 helped to raise standards of living, built an internal market and strengthened the Union’s voice in the world. It has achieved results which would not have been possible by individual Member States acting on their own […] What is the Community method? The Community method guarantees both the diversity and effectiveness of the Union. It ensures the fair treatment of all Member States from the largest to the smallest. It provides a means to arbitrate between different interests by passing them through two successive filters: the general interest at the level of the Commission and the democratic representation […] (WP- EG 2001). As these extracts show, White Papers drafters tend to confront such views not only through explicit evaluative acts, but also by ‘questioning their truth value’ (Giannoni 2008). These results partly reflect the fact that the White Papers, and in particular WP-EG 2001, deal with claims originating from society, Member States, and other interested parties. As we have seen, this is explicitly stated in the official presentation of WP-EG 2001 in the European official website, with the indication of 12 reports, 2 studies and intense consultation of both EU citizens and academics upon which the text has been based. 3.2 Metaphors: pragmatic and stylistic effects Metaphoric expressions and figurative language in general are a pervasive feature of English and their presence in professional domains extends from the argumentative level to the lexicon and terminology deployed (Fahnestock 1999). Metaphors have been investigated in terms of their use for special pragmatic and stylistic effects (Charteris-Black 2004) and, with the exception of WP-GCE 1993 with 1 metaphor (“a flesh in the pan”), WP-EG 2001 is the only target text showing some occurrences of them (10 occ.). Their presence may appear incongruous, because of the tension with the surrounding discourse, but it is justified by the hybridity of a genre spanning the institutional and private dimension of the EU networks. As the analysis reveals, metaphors may serve to introduce colloquial and/ or journalistic register: Better Policies, regulation and delivery; - I. Why Reform European Governance? Yet despite its achievements, many Europeans feel alienated from the Union’s work […] But for The Union, it reflects particular tensions and uncertainty about what the Union is and what it aspires to become... The decreasing turnout in the European Parliament elections and the Irish “No” vote also serve to show the widening gulf between the European Union and the people it serves […]. Simplification at EU level must be accompanied by a similar commitment from Member States. People first and foremost want less red tape at a national level - they do not care whether its origin is in European White Paper on Governance: EU attempt to popularize legal discourse? 221 or national decisions. One of the biggest sources of concern is the tendency of Member States when implementing Community directives to add new costly procedures or to make legislation more complex (WP- EG 2001). Some other metaphors may have a stylistic effect, shifting away from the institutional register associated with the EU networks (Bhatia 2008a, 2008b; Giannoni 2008). Most metaphors originate from general English: III Proposal for Changes The Union is changing as well. Its agenda extends to foreign policy and defense, migration and the fight against crime. It is expanding to include new members. It will no longer be judged solely by its ability to remove barriers to trade or to complete an internal market; its legitimacy today depends on involvement and participation. This means that the linear model of dispensing policies from above must be replaced by a virtuous circle, based on feedback, networks and involvement from policy creation to implementation at all Levels [...]. Civil society must itself follow the principles of good governance, which include accountability and openness. The Commission intends to establish, before the end of this year, a comprehensive on-line database with details of civil society organisations active at European level, which should act as a catalystto improve their internal organization. (WP-EG 2001) In the extracts reported above, most of the items are often used in languages other than English and their meaning might be easily grasped. Yet, the reader is expected not only to catch and understand the figurative sense of the metaphor but also to recognize that it is borrowed from other non-legal/ legislative domain (Boers 2000; Littlemore and Low 2006). 3.3 Marked lexis: polarization of meanings/ hyperbole, emotional involvement and important meanings For the purpose of our investigation, marked lexis involves the use of hyperbole, emotional participation and association with spurious registers (Nesi 2006). Even though all White Papers included in the corpus have instances of marked lexis, WP-EG 2001 is the one with the highest number of occurrences. More specifically, marked lexis helps foreground strategically important meanings: The Commission identified the reform of European governance as one of its four strategic objectives in early 2000. Political developments since then have highlighted that the Union faces a double challenge: there is not only a need for urgent action to adapt governance under the Giulia Adriana Pennisi 222 existing treaties, but also for a broader debate on the future of Europe in view of the next Inter-Governmental Conference […]. This disenchantmentand with it the fundamental questions concerning the future of Europe will be the subject of intense debate in the run up to the Inter-Governmental Conference. However, in preparing for further institutional change, the Union must start the process of reform now (WP-EG 2001); The European Commission is therefore proposing a fundamentally new approach - a decisive move away from one-way communication to reinforced dialogue, from an institution-centred to a citizen-centred communication, from a Brussels-based to a more decentralised approach. Communication should become an EU policy in its own right, at the service of the citizens. It should be based on genuine dialogue between the people and the policymakers and lively political discussion among citizens themselves. People from all walks of life should have the right to fair and full information about the European Union, and be confident that the views and concerns they express are heard by the EU institutions (WP-SGI 2006). ‘In-group marking’ (Giannoni 2008) occurs when the tone becomes more private/ personal orphatic, and often includes personal pronouns involving explicitly both the EU institutions (i.e., European Commission) and the Member States/ European citizens into the discourse: This major challenge confronts us all […] That is why we are calling on everyone - and not only political decision-makers and business leaders - to contribute to the combined effort by seeking to understand the new world and by participating in the joint endeavour (WP-GCE 1993). M arked collocations are also used when expressing disagreement: The White Paper proposes a set of initial actions, including some which refocus the Commission on its core tasks. These will be taken forward immediately and should also inspire change in the other Institutions […]. In setting priorities and ensuring coherence, the Institutions must guard against decisions on future policies which are inspired by short-term thinking on long-term challenges. This is a real risk as in the near future institutional reform, important policy choices, budgetary bargaining and enlargement could all coincide. It is likely to stretch the Union’s capacity to show leadership through a coherent vision of the future. The Union must also continue to ensure that it has adequate resources to carry out the tasks assigned to it (WP-EG 2001). (my emphasis) White Paper on Governance: EU attempt to popularize legal discourse? 223 Eventually, the implications of marked lexis can be fully appreciated by readers who possess not only a firm knowledge of standard English but also of other domains of the language (Bhatia 2002; Myers 1990; Whitley 1985). 3.4 Appeals to the reader: drawing the reader into the discourse Another feature typical of popularizing discourse, which has been identified in some of the texts included in the corpus, consists of expressions that draw the reader into the discourse, urging him/ her to follow a given course of action (Vihla 1999; Verhagen 2008). The analysis reveals that such appeals to the reader are chiefly used for making requests: Involvement in policy shaping. At EU level, the Commission should ensure that regional and local knowledge and conditions are taken into account when developing policy proposals. For this purpose, it should organize a systematic dialogue with European and national associations of regional and local Government […] The Commission welcomes ongoing efforts to increase cooperation […] (WP-EG 2001); and for offering advice: The White Paper invites a lively and open discussion […]. European citizens and stakeholders are invited to respond by logging on to a specially-created multilingual website .(WP-ECP 2006) At this point it can be observed that the expressions reported above foreground a kind of interactive, reader-oriented nature of the White Paper, whose main purpose is not only to link up with all the addressees and in particular the parties involved in the European dialogue, but also to get them involved, dialogically, in new developments in the field of the European governance. 3.5 Contingency: the contingent nature of the specialist work Contingency includes words and expressions that signal the contingent nature of the European Commission’s work in specific fields by associating it with the particular situation, condition, moment or event in which decisions or activities have been taken or carried out (Myers 1990). In this regard, contingency might be used to justify decisions taken by the European institutions as driven by unpredictable events or developments. As we read, Today, political leaders throughout Europe are facing a real paradox. On the one hand, Europeans want them to find solutions to the major problems confronting our societies. On the other hand, people increasingly distrust institutions and politics or are simply not interested in them […] There is currently a lack of clarity about how consultations are run and to whom the Institutions listen. The Commission runs Giulia Adriana Pennisi 224 nearly 700 ad hoc consultation bodies in a wide range of policies. The increase in the volume of international negotiations generates further ad hoc consultation. The Commission believes it needs to rationalize this unwieldy system not to stifle discussion, but to make it more effective and accountable both for those consulted and those receiving the advice. (WP-EG 2001) From the extract reported above, contingency is deployed to justify the contingent nature of human action that might be largely influenced by variable factors. Yet, “the candour of these statements may be misconstrued by the reader” (Giannoni 2008: 226) who are unfamiliar with the rhetorical conventions of specialized discourse and may eventually infer a lack of diligence and serious planning on the part of the actors involved in the EU governance process (Gilbert and Mulkay 1984). Even in this case, the highest number of occurrences of this popularizing feature has been found in WP-EG 2001. 3.6 Humour: phatic device As suggested by scholars investigating the role of humour in specialized genres (Swales 2004; Nesi 2006), humour is a convenient expression to name a variety of rhetorical devices ranging from ‘light irony to biting sarcasm’ (Giannoni 2008). Generally speaking, when specialists/ experts resort to these rhetorical devices “they often switch from the public (empiricist repertoire) to the private (contingent repertoire)” (Giannoni 2008: 222). The analysis conducted on the corpus reveals that WP-EG 2001 is the only target text showing a few occurrences of humour. In all occurrences, humour is deployed as a phatic device to help the author (i.e. the European Commission) strengthen the relationship with the addressees of the specialized text (i.e. Member States, EU citizens, all the participants in the EU governance process). From this point of view, the following extract is particularly illuminating: The White Paper proposes opening up the policy-making process to get more people and organisations involved in the shaping and delivering EU policy […] The Commission cannot make these changes on its own, nor should this White Paper seen as a magic cure for everything. Introducing changes requires effort from all the other Institutions, central government, regions, cities and civil society in the current and future Member States The White Paper is primarily addressed to them […] The Commission alone cannot improve European governance, nor can this Paper provide a magic cure for everything. Change requires concerted action by all the European. Institutions, present and future Member States regional and local authorities, and civil society. This paper is primarily addressed to them. (WP-EG 2001) White Paper on Governance: EU attempt to popularize legal discourse? 225 As this passage shows, mocking an opponent might be used to mitigate some criticism made by those who are involved in the governance discourse (i.e. Member States, regional, and local authorities) at different levels and with different roles (Leech 1983; Lynch 2002). 4 Discussion and final remarks The whole issue of popularization of EU discourse is much more complex that it might appear on the surface. In fact, it has a number of different yet overlapping dimensions, with varying perspectives, interests and power dynamics, giving rise to a number of tensions among the actors involved. At the EU level the real drafter is the European Commission that actually contributes to the content of the White Papers. The recipients are the Member States (namely, lawyers and national legislators) who interpret and implement the legislative language and then the final recipients (namely, the European citizens) who pay cost and/ or receive benefit arising from the implementation of the EU documents (Welz 2008). The contextual investigation of textual and discursive findings has been conducted in order to understand ‘the rationale for writing White Papers the way they are written’ (Bhatia 2004, 2008b). The ‘rationale’ for writing the White Papers, and in particularly WP-EG 2001,in such a positive and encouraging tone is that the European Commission strives to reach a large consensus at the European level on delicate and controversial issues involving all Member States (Jouve and Lefevre 2002). This matches an interesting aspect of European public discourse that has been particular evident in the recent years. It is the concern on the part of the EU institutions to assure social partners and European citizens that the transition to ‘better EU governance’ is going to be smooth and free of any conflict and it supports the action of the member states. In this case, we have seen significant indication of the European institutions’ good intention in all target texts included in the corpus, with a slight increase in the White Papers issued in the first decade of 2000s. Popularization, meaning the spreading of knowledge/ findings outside the specialized community that produces and to a certain extent ‘owns’ such knowledge, helps to create and maintain a vital relationship between specialists/ professionals and the general public (Giannoni 2008). In this regard, WP- EG 2001 stands out in the corpus for the high occurrence of popularizing features that makes it as the first EU’s attempt to connect with the wider public. Given the limited number and coverage of the texts included in the corpus, the findings presented above are of course not conclusive and it would be advisable to investigate the same features on future White Papers to see whether White Papers, and in particular the White Paper on Governance, represent an isolated EU’s attempt to popularize legal discourse or the beginning of a renewed EU institutions/ EU citizens specialized communication. Giulia Adriana Pennisi 226 References Bensaude-Vincent, B. 2001. A Genealogy of The Increasing Gap Between Science and The Public. Public Understanding of Science 10, 99-113. Bhatia. V. K. 2002. Applied Genre Analysis: a Multi-Perspective Model. Iberica 4, 3-19. Bhatia. V.K. 2004. Worlds of Written Discourse. A Genre-based View. London: Continuum. Bhatia, V.K., Candlin, C., Engberg. J. (eds) 2008a. Legal Discourse Across Cultures and Systems. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press. Bhatia, V.K., Flowerdew, J., Jones Rodney, H. (eds) 2008b. 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In Shinn, T. and Whitley, R. (eds.), Expository Science: Forms and Functions of Popularisation. Dordrecht: Siam, 3-28. Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information, from a Binding Regulation to an Informative Brochure Monica Rizzo (University of Palermo, Italy) 1 Introduction Legal language, which differs from the language used in everyday communication for many aspects, has always been considered obscure for the layman. The use of a complex language is often a choice of the members of discourse communities - defined by Swales as “socio-rhetorical networks that form in order to work towards sets of common goals” (1990: 9). In the legal sphere, such a discourse community has been exercising a strong linguistic and social power for centuries. The linguistic and conceptual complexity of legal language clearly leads to distinctive problems. The accessibility to legislative texts is in fact essential because the addressees of these texts are identified not only with the professionals belonging to the discourse community but also with the laypeople, i.e. the citizens that have the right to understand the law in order to respect it. The problem of the accessibility of legal documents is even stronger within a supranational community such as the European Union where the problem of the obscurity of legal definitions is worsened by the need of expressing the same legal rules in all the official languages. Although Eurolanguage (the language of the European supranational communication) presents simplified features if compared to standard legal English used in British national legislation, it preserves the conservative nature that has historically characterised legal expression, and therefore represents a source of obscurity for European citizens. This study first highlights the similarities and the differences between standard legal English and Eurolanguage to understand if the principles of the Plain Language Movement influence the drafting of the European legislation. The lexical, syntactic and textual features of a EU Regulation concerning regional policies have been analysed in comparison to the lexical, syntactic and textual features, which are commonly associated to the expression of the legislation and which have been widely studied (Bhatia 1993, Gibbons 1994; Gotti 2005; Melinkoff 1963; Tiersma 1999). The paper then focuses on intralingual translation (Jakobson 1959/ 2000: 114) as a tool for the popularization of legal discourse. The EU, aware of the democratic gap that is also due to the obscurity of the legislation, publishes informative documents in order to bring the Monica Rizzo 230 citizens closer to its activities. An informative brochure, concerning regional policies and therefore linked to the Regulation previously analysed, has been studied to highlight how European legal discourse is popularized for informative purposes, provoking a shift in the textual genre. 2 Standard legal English vs Eurolanguage The language of the law has always been considered obscure and complex if compared to the language used in everyday communication. In this respect, legal English does not differ from the legal expression of any other language. The features of complexity and obscurity of legal English are due to historical and social factors such as the strengthening of the authority of the State through the use of a ritual language, the shift from oral to written discourse in legal expression, the use of languages unknown to the natives (i.e. Latin and Norman French) and the high occurrence of technical terms (Tiersma 1999). As a consequence, the forms and the structures of contemporary legal English are the result of different influences that allowed the development and the standardization of such a complex code. Therefore, legal expression is often incomprehensible for the layman and for this reason it has been broadly criticised by movements whose aim is to simplify the code of expression of the law. Criticism to the complexity of legal language is stronger when legal English is used in international contexts playing the role of lingua franca to allow to members of different nationalities - belonging to different socio-cultural and legal backgrounds - to communicate. This is the case of the European Union where, despite the declaration of the principle of the multilingualism and the official status conferred to every language of the Community, a specific form of legal English is actually used to guarantee the communication flux between all the participants to the Community. The language of the European legislation is known as Eurolanguage and it is considered the communication tool of the new European culture. It is considered a neutral language free from specific cultural influences and enriched by different national influences at the same time. Thanks to its linguistic, contextual and stylistic features, Eurolanguage is considered a language for specific purposes (Caliendo 2004: 163), which supports and simplifies the translation procedures of the legislative texts in all the official languages of the Union. Legal English used within the European Union shows some differences and some similarities when compared to legal English used in the British national context. On the one hand, the differences are due to its supranational use in a multicultural context that is not linked to Common Law. Eurolanguage is in fact an intercultural instrument of communication and it is the product of the constant contact between different languages and cultures that continuously influence each other. Therefore, Eurolanguage is deliberately isolated from any local situation and reflects a new legal system where lan- Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 231 guage is exceptionally not linked to any legal tradition (Caliendo, Di Martino, Venuti 2005: 382). On the other hand, the similarities between Eurolanguage and standard legal English are clearly caused by the influence that the latter has always been exercising on the European lingua franca. This influence is sometimes so strong that scepticism on the real neutrality of Eurolanguage in terms of political and socio-cultural power is more than justified. The most striking difference between the two varieties of legal language is perhaps terminological and it is mainly due to the different legal systems they refer to. The EU legal system is highly complex because it encompasses different sources of law. It is a unique legal system since the European legislation is based neither on one single linguistic system nor on one single legal system. Therefore, the complexity of the European legal system is due to the coexistence of elements belonging to different national legal systems polarised on Common Law and Civil Law. This mix of different legal traditions caused linguistic and conceptual problems that are closely linked to lexical and terminological problems. As the new European legal system created new institutions, new concepts and new rules, the language of the European legislation faced lexical and terminological problems that were solved with the creation of new terminology. This new terminology had two purposes: labelling the new legal situations on the one hand, and avoiding the use of existing terms in the national languages to refer to the new supranational situations on the other hand. The lexical resources of the national languages could in fact lead to confusion and ambiguity between national and supranational situations. Therefore, The European Union, as a body of supranational law, has started a process of creation of a new specialised vocabulary to refer to its own concepts that can be used unambiguously within the twenty-three official languages. This is the case of the terminology used to refer to the textual genres of the European legislation ‘directives’, ‘regulations’, ‘decisions’, ‘recommendations’ that exist in all the official languages where they lose their general meaning and acquire a specific common meaning. Also, these European terms represent cases of total equivalence in translation, showing correspondence between all the essential and accidental semantic features between one language and another one, and therefore simplifying their translation into the other official languages. The same principle applies to more complex lexical units, such as ‘principle of subsidiarity’, ‘principle of proportionality’, ‘common market’, ‘internal market’, ‘co-decision procedure’, ‘intergovernmental conference’, the names of the EU institutions and so forth. The combination of two or more terms gave rise to the formation of established noun phrases with a specific European meaning that also permeated into the national languages (Cinato 2010: 94). Although these noun phrases are extremely complex, they maintain a stable meaning in all the official languages. In terms of translation, the terms referring to the European legislation have been standardised within the official languages creating total semantic equivalences both Monica Rizzo 232 on their signifier and on their signified, at least in the case of those official languages belonging to the same language families. Therefore, unlike the conservative nature of standard legal English, Eurolanguage is featured by terminological innovation and creativity in response to the need of creating new supranational terms that refer to new supranational concepts, principles and institutions. European neologisms have been largely created within primary legislation, i.e. first the Treaties established the new political scenarios and the new legal instruments. Thus, the Maastricht Treaty is referred as one of the most prolific terminological sources (Caliendo 2004: 168-175), as it represents the political document that gave rise to the Union itself. The Treaty created the common principles (e.g. the principles of subsidiarity and of proportionality) and the rules that have been applied to secondary legislation first and to national legislations afterwards. The innovative European terminology has been created through different linguistic procedures, first of all through semantic and morphological neologisms. Semantic neologisms are those terms that belong to general language with a general meaning and acquire a new specific meaning when they are transferred and applied to a new semantic field. Examples of European semantic neologisms are ‘enlargement’ referring to the access of new Member States to the Union, ‘harmonisation’ with reference to the need of bringing national laws into line with one another on any particular issue for which the EU has responsibility, ‘competencies’ with reference to what powers and responsibilities should be given to EU institutions and what should be left to national, regional and local authorities. Conversely, morphological neologisms are those terms created by affixation. ‘Euro’ seems to be the most productive prefix forming neologisms such as ‘Eurotariff’, ‘Euroscepticism’, ‘Eurocrat’ and so forth. Metaphors represent another linguistic device to create new terminology and to express new concepts through already known images. For example, the expression ‘the pillars of the European Union’ refers to the institutional structure of the Union composed by the three main fields of action 1 that are visualised through the architectural image of the pillars. Similarly, the geometrical metaphor of ‘the institutional triangle’ is used to conceptualise the relationship between the three European institutions which are responsible for making policy and taking decisions: the Council of the European Union, the European Commission, and the European Parliament. Calques are another instrument used to enrich the European lexicon and they are a highly occurring phenomenon in Eurolanguage where they are created from the most widely used official languages, English and French. In 1 The Community pillar, which corresponds to the three Communities: the European Community, the European Atomic Energy Community and the former European Coal and Steel Community; the pillar devoted to the common foreign affairs and security policy and the pillar devoted to police and judicial cooperation in criminal matters. Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 233 this respect, also English has been strongly influenced by French and terms as ‘regulation’ and ‘directive’ are examples of semantic calques from the French directive e réglement. Such semantic calques are originated when a term acquires a new meaning from a foreign word because of their formal similarity. Another feature that strongly distinguishes Eurolanguage from standard legal English is the higher occurrence of indefinite and vague expressions. As already said, Eurolanguage has strongly contributed to the creation of a new lexicon that denotes concepts and principles related to the European legal system and absolutely unbinds from national legal cultures. The use of generic and undefined expressions is therefore essential to avoid the reference to national legal situations. The use of such an undetermined language is also recommended in the EU’ s Joint Practical Guide for persons involved in the drafting of legislation within the Community institutions (2003) 2 and it is considered, together with the use of a supranational terminology, the appropriate instrument to avoid parallelisms and comparisons with national legal procedures. Although there are many advantages in using a simplified language, e.g. easier concordances between different linguistic versions in translation and a higher level of accessibility to the law for citizens and addressees, it is considered that levelling the lexical register could undermine the expressive tools of a language (Cosmai 2003: 129). In fact, if the use of a supranational language - rich in specific technical terms and undefined expressions - solves the problem of the untranslatability of complex legal elements on the one hand, it provokes other negative consequences on the other hand. For example, the use of generic and indefinite terms leads to problems for the interpretation and the application of the legal rules at national level. The use of such an ambiguous language is by the way necessary in a heterogeneous community such as the Union where indefinite expressions are required to build up the political consensus among all the members of the Community. If European legislative texts are considered more comprehensible than British legislative texts because of the use of a simplified legal language if compared to the standard legal English used in the national context, they are also considered examples of poor drafting quality. Such a poor drafting quality is a consequence of the multilingual nature of the European working context where drafters are not always native speakers. The poor drafting quality of the European legislation is also caused by the procedure of collective drafting that does not allow recognizing one single drafter for one single text. The collective drafting is a consequence of the co-decision procedure in law making where the texts are drafted, amended and edited several times under the supervision of different committees in their transition from bill to law. All things considered, Eurolanguage is the expression of a continuous contact between the members of the Community. It is the instrument that guarantees supranational communication and that allows the harmonisation of 2 Available at http: / / eur-lex.europa.eu/ en/ techleg/ index.htm Monica Rizzo 234 legal procedures at supranational level. For all its features, Eurolanguage leads to the production of “hybrid texts”, expression used by Trosborg (1997: 145- 46) to refer to those texts produced in multicultural supranational contexts. Criteria of simplification and linearity are adopted when drafting such hybrid texts, reducing the syntactic and the stylistic complexity of the national legal language with respect at least to the drafting habits in United Kingdom and Italy (Garzone 2002: 47). Simplified and more linear structures are therefore used to reduce the distance between divergent legal systems. 3 The effects of the Plain English Movement on the drafting of the European legislation The lexical, syntactic and textual features of English legal language have been deeply analysed (Gotti 2005; Tiersma 1999; Gibbons 1994; Melinkoff 1963) and they are often criticized because they lead to obscurity and ambiguity, preventing the layman from understanding the law. Modern legal English has acquired during the centuries the contemporary trait of complexity and has become the centre of criticism, mainly coming from the Plain Language Movement, which gathers the strongest requests of simplification of legal language. The Plain Language Movement was born in 1970 in New York with the aim of reforming the language of administrative documents to make them more easily accessible to laypeople and thus gaining social advantages from the use of a clearer language. The Movement gained the support of many different parts of the society and gained the support of thousands of people from all the biggest English-speaking countries (Williams 2005: 168). On the other side, jurists never welcomed the Movement and they tended to maintain the form of expression of the law and their consequent linguistic and social power. Such a linguistic power has thus become an instrument of social control that represents the result of the extreme linguistic conservatism of legal language. For this reasons the core principles of the Plain Language Movement have never found wide application on the drafting rules of legal texts. The European Union, being a new heterogeneous legal entity, could be the right context to apply the rules of plain drafting giving substance to the principles of the Plain Language Movement with the aim of enhancing the transparency, and therefore the degree of participation of its citizens to its activities and policies (Williams 2006: 252). Conversely, although Eurolanguage presents simplified features - mainly lexical as already underlined- if compared to standard legal English, the latter strongly influences Eurolanguage, and therefore the drafting style of EU legislation. Just in the last years, thanks to the Directorate General for Translation of the European Commission, a different consciousness has developed toward the drafting habits of Eurodocuments. For example, translators have being promoting the campaign Fight the Fog with the aim of guiding drafters and translators toward a clearer, simpler Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 235 and more concise drafting through the publication of the brochure How to Write Clearly 3 . Also the preface of the EU’s Joint Practical Guide for persons involved in the drafting of legislation within the Community institutions clearly states that “Since the Edinburgh European Council in 1992, the need for better lawmaking - by clearer, simpler acts complying with principles of good legislative drafting - has been recognised at the highest political level” (2003: 5). The name of the European campaign for clearer drafting habits of the legislation uses the metaphor of the fog to underline the negative effects of traits such as ambiguity and imprecision in the drafting of legislative texts. The main consideration of the Campaign is that EU texts have to be translated into several other languages and the risk of writing vague English is the production of non-matching translations, as each translator tries to guess what the drafter might have meant. Therefore the Campaign aims at removing every source of ambiguity for the interpretation of the law. The main reforming proposals of Fight the Fog, in accordance with the principles of the Plain Language Movement, aim at removing all the forms of complexity and ambiguity from legal language by a) avoiding archaic, Latin and foreign expressions; b) using shorter sentences and removing all the redundant elements; c) avoiding the use of passive forms; d) avoiding the use of nominalizations; e) avoiding the use of acronyms and abbreviations and using concrete terms instead of abstract ones; f) limiting the use of shall. A binding legislative text - a EU Regulation - has been analysed to verify to what extent the European drafting habits take into account these reforming proposals and, generally speaking, the principles of plain language and plain drafting. 4 Archaic expressions, generally used only in legal contexts, are constantly observed also in European prescriptive legal texts. As for British legal English, these terms belong to every grammatical category but they are very common in the use of adverbs. Here some examples follow: […] This Regulation defines the objectives to which the Structural Funds and the Cohesion Fund (hereinafter referred to as the Funds) are to contribute, the criteria for Member States and regions to be eli- 3 Available at http: / / ec.europa.eu/ translation/ writing/ clear_writing/ how_to_write_clearly_en.pdf 4 Council Regulation (EC) N. 1083/ 2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund and repealing Regulation (EC) N. 1260/ 1999. Monica Rizzo 236 gible under those Funds, the financial resources available and the criteria for their allocation. […]. 5 The Commission shall provide its comments on the audit strategy presented under paragraph 1(c) no later than three months from receipt thereof. In the absence of comments within this period it shall be considered to be accepted. 6 (my emphasis) In the following examples it is interesting to observe the adjectival use of aforementioned, a variation of the more common aforesaid, and abovementioned: […] The aforementioned powers of audit shall not affect the application of national provisions which reserve certain acts for agents specifically designated by national legislation. Authorised Commission representatives shall not take part, inter alia, in home visits or the formal questioning of persons within the framework of the national legislation of the Member State concerned. However, they shall have access to information thus obtained. […]. 7 […] However, at the partial or final closure of the operational programme, eligible expenditure shall be the total of: (b) any payments for investment in enterprises from each of the abovementioned funds; or […]. 8 (my emphasis) In the above example, the Latin expression inter alia suggests that also Eurolanguage, as standard legal English, is highly permeated by the use of foreign terms and expressions, specifically Latin and French, which contribute to the complexity of the legal text. In the following fragments other examples are given: […] The Commission shall, in cooperation with each Member State, verify additionality expost on 31 December 2016 for the Convergence objective. The Member State shall transmit to the Commission the information required to enable the verification of compliance with the level of public or equivalent structural expenditure determined ex ante. Where necessary, methods of statistical estimation should be used. […]. 9 5 Art. 3. 6 Art. 62(4). 7 Art. 72(2). 8 Art. 78(6). 9 Art. 15(4). Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 237 […] Article 71 shall apply mutatis mutandis. […]. 10 Payments shall take the form of pre-financing, interim payments and payment of the final balance. They shall be made to the body designated by the Member State. 11 The agreement referred to in the first subparagraph of Article 42(1) shall detail in particular: […] (d) the arrangements for monitoring, evaluating and ensuring the financial control of the global grant referred to in Article 59(1) vis-à-vis the managing authority, including the arrangements for recoveringamounts unduly paid and the presentation of accounts; […]. 12 […] In cases of force majeure, and in particular of malfunction of the common computerised system or a lack of a lasting connection, Member States may forward statements of expenditure and applications for payment in hard copy. 13 (my emphasis) The use of Latin and French terminology certainly does not contribute to make the text easily accessible to the layperson who will probably struggle to deal with the meaning and the interpretation of expressions like vis-à-vis or interim payments that could be easily substituted with the English in relation to and bond payments, applying the principle of plain drafting. A feature that clearly distinguishes legal language from common language and from other specialized languages is the length of its texts. Legal texts are in fact well known for being long and redundant. The use of long and redundant sentences is justified by the need of all-inclusiveness that legislative texts have to guarantee not to leave apart any case of application of the law. It is also true that in some cases the principle of all-inclusiveness can be achieved using shorter sentences and removing some forms of redundancy, which do not necessarily lead to more clarity. In other words, redundancy is often a pure stylistic feature of legal texts and such a stylistic feature is also observed in Eurolanguage. In the following examples, redundant expressions do not have any particular functions but they are used as a drafting feature: Every year, when the annual report on implementation referred to in Article 67 is submitted, the Commission and the managing authority shall examine the progress made in implementing the operational programme, the principal results achieved over the previous year, the financial implementation and other factors with a view toimproving implementation. 14 10 Art. 74(2). 11 Art. 76(2). 12 Art. 43. 13 Art. 76(4). 14 Art. 68. Monica Rizzo 238 The obligations on the Member States as regards management and control systems, the certification of expenditure, and the prevention, detection and correction of irregularities and infringements of Community lawshould bespecified to guarantee the efficient and correct implementation of operational programmes. In particular, concerning management and control, it is necessary to establish the procedures by which Member States give the assurance that the systems are in place and function satisfactorily. 15 (my emphasis) In the examples given above, the underlined forms of redundancy could have been avoided and substituted with more straightforward and direct structures, such as to improve, to implement efficient and correct operational programmes and ensure. Other forms of redundancy are caused by the use of complex prepositional phrases that are preferred to simple prepositions also in the European legal style. It is the case of the use of for the purpose of instead of for or in accordance with instead of under: For the purpose of interregional cooperation, cooperation networks and exchange of experience, the entire territory of the Community shall be eligible. 16 Three per cent of the resources referred to in Article 19(a) and (b) and Article 20 may be allocated in accordance with Article 50. 17 [my emphasis] A clear example of the length of legal definitions is given in the paragraph below where the only punctuation form is the full stop at the end of a long and complex sentence. Such a complex structure could have been simplified, following the principles of plain drafting and avoiding the relative clauses and the syntactic discontinuities: The Member States eligible for funding from the Cohesion Fund in 2006 which would have continued to be eligible had the eligibility threshold remained at 90% of the average GNI of the EU-15, but which lose eligibility because their nominal per capita GNI will exceed 90 % of the average GNI of the EU-25 measured and calculated according to Article 5(2), shall be eligible, on a transitional and specific basis, for financing by the Cohesion Fund under the Convergence objective. 18 The use of passive and impersonal forms is another aspect of the European legal style. Also Eurolanguage privileges the pervasive use of passive forms, 15 Recital (66). 16 Art 7(3). 17 Art. 23. 18 Art. 8(3). Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 239 which is broadly criticized because of the high risk of leading to confusion and ambiguity above all when the agent is omitted, as in the following example: The objectives of the Funds shall be pursued in the framework of a multiannual programming system organised in several stages comprising the identification of the priorities, the financing, and a system of management and control. 19 (my emphasis) On the other side, passive forms are considered useless above all when the agent is specified as they only contribute to increase the complexity of the text, as in the following case: Each operational programme shall be drawn up by the Member State or any authority designated by the Member State, in cooperation with the partners referred to in Article 11. 20 (my emphasis) The use of impersonal forms is closely linked to the use of the passive voice, as both represent efficient stylistic devices for the depersonalization, conferring authority to the text as if the legal rule was decided from a superior entity: There is a need to ensure that sufficientresources are devoted to assist Member States in project preparation and appraisal. The EIB has a role to play in providingsuch assistance and could be awarded a grant by the Commission to this end. Similarly it is appropriate to provide that the EIF could be awarded a grantfrom the Commission to undertake an evaluation of the needs of innovative financial engineering instruments available for micro, small and medium-sized enterprises. 21 (my emphasis) Nominalization is another feature of legal language that, often combined with the use of passive and impersonal forms, contributes to enhance the objectivity and the authority of the legislative text on one side, and its complexity and its obscurity on the other side: Without prejudice to the Commission’s powers as regards financial control, cooperation between the Member States and the Commission in this field should be increased and criteria should be established which allow the Commission to determine, in the context of its strategy of control of national systems, the level of assurance it can obtain from national audit bodies. 22 19 Art. 10. 20 Art. 32(2). 21 Recital (51) and (52). 22 Recital (67). Monica Rizzo 240 Implementation of operational programmes referred to in Article 32 shall be the responsibility of Member States at the appropriate territorial level, in accordance with the institutional system specific to each Member State. That responsibility shall be exercised in accordance with this Regulation. 23 (my emphasis) The above sentences could have been easily encoded following the principles of plain writing, thus using active forms and avoiding nominalization, as in: […] the Member States and the Commission should cooperate at higher level and should establish the criteria which allow the Commission to determine […]/ Member States shall be responsible for implementing operational programmes referred to in Article 32 at appropriate level, in accordance with the institutional system specificto each Member State.They shall exercise that responsibility in accordance with this Regulation. Following the principles of plain drafting, the use of acronyms and abbreviations should be limited and the use of concrete terms should be preferred to the use of vague and imprecise ones. But again Eurolanguage does not apply such principles in the drafting of legislative texts: To that end, the ERDF, the ESF, the Cohesion Fund, the EIB and the other existing Community financial instruments shall each contribute in an appropriate way towards achieving the following three objectives: […]. 24 (my emphasis) Eurolanguage does not always follow the recommendation ‘Spell it out’ concerning the benefits of writing acronyms and abbreviations in full, nor it always applies the principle of avoiding the use of concrete terms. It is unquestionable that the use of vague and indefinite adjectives such as appropriate leads to ambiguity and imprecision in the application of the legal rule. On the other side, even though imprecision requires interpretation procedures, it is sometimes needed for the concrete application of the law in a wide context as the European one, where legal rules have to be applied and implemented in the different legal, economic and social contexts of the Member States. The strongest request for the simplification of legal language is the elimination of the modal verb shall from legal texts. This modal verb is considered ambiguous and archaic, as it is rarely used also in common English - only in interrogative clauses - and with a different meaning from the one used in legal context. According to the simplification requests, shall could be easily replaced by may to give permissions, by should to recommend an action, by will to indicate a future action, by the indicative present tense to state a real 23 Art. 12. 24 Art. 3(2). Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 241 event and by must to impose a legal obligation. Thus, finding a valid alternative to shall is not a lexical problem, but a pragmatic one because neither the present tense nor must can replace the meaning of shall in every circumstance. Shall combines two fundamental functions for legal language, i.e. it expresses compulsoriness and it refers to the future (Williams 2006: 252). Although it is possible to avoid the use of shall and to replace it with other verbal forms, the need of totally abolishing it from prescriptive legal texts is unmotivated because of its pragmatic force. For these reasons, shall is the most frequently used modal verb also within Eurolanguage and it is considered the strongest marker of compulsoriness. Also in European legal texts, shall combines the performative function of marking the immediate efficacy of the legal rule and the deontic function of imposing an obligation to the grammatical subject, as in the following examples: The action taken by the Community under Article 158 of the Treaty shall be designed to strengthen the economic and social cohesion of the enlarged European Union in order to promote the harmonious, balanced and sustainable development of the Community. […]. 25 The Member States and the Commission shall ensure that equality between men and women and the integration of the gender perspective is promoted during the various stages of implementation of the Funds. […]. 26 (my emphasis) 4 The popularization of European law through intralingual translation: the shift from a regulation to a brochure Popularization is defined as a communication process that involves the conveyance of specialized knowledge to the general public for education or information purposes (Gotti 2005: 203). Popularization for informative purposes has been here analysed as an instrument to narrow the gap between European legal texts and the citizenship. Historically there has always been a gap between science (as knowledge) and the general public but thanks to new media and to information revolution, the processes of democratization and globalization have provoked some convergence between the two sides of the gap. This process is clearly not exempt from difficulties. One of the biggest problems is the different way in which the two worlds - science and general public - regard specialized knowledge: while knowledge has an immanent value in its context for experts, for non-experts the value is placed on the real application of such a knowledge and on the consequences of its use in people’s lives (Calsamiglia 2003: 140). This concept can definitely be applied on law where non-experts 25 Art. 3(1). 26 Art. 16. Monica Rizzo 242 need to know how to apply practically the rules they have to follow and how to avoid the infringement of these rules. The gap between the scientific world and the general world is linguistically represented by the differences between specialized discourse and general language. Specialized discourse, which clearly comprises legal discourse, has been gradually structured using particular conditions of production and interpretation of its texts, which are encoded with the use of a specialized register both at micro and macro-textual level. Such a communication mode clearly represents a challenge for those people who are not trained nor are initiated to that specific field of specialization. For this reason narrowing the gap between science and general public has become a real need and such a process is referred to as popularization. Popularization is a form of communication to convey information about specialized knowledge to a wider public following a different mode of interaction from specialized discourse. Thus, the concept of popularization implies the separation between two different discourses, one within experts and institutions and one outside them. Within the popularization process, a shift in the discourse and in the textual genre can be observed: the content of the text is translated from one discourse to another one and it is often represented through a different textual genre. Popularization can in fact be considered a process of translation, and vice versa translation can be considered a tool for the popularization of specialized discourse. Translation and popularization share at least two features. Both processes involve the transformation of a source text into a derived text (every popularization implies the presence of a specialized text) and both tend to produce an imperfect equivalence between source and target text (a popularization approximates the content of the original text in the same way a translation diverges from its source text) (Gotti 2005: 205). Therefore, popularization can be considered as a specific form of translation that Jakobson names intralingual or rewording, representing “an interpretation of verbal signs by means of other signs in the same language” (1959/ 2000: 114). Popularization also presents similarities with interlingual translation or in Jakobson’s words (1959/ 2000: 114) “translation proper”. Firstly, it is very likely that in the shift from specialized language to general language the information changes its textual form. In interlingual translation, the purpose of the target text in the new context guides the linguistic and the textual choices. Similarly, the communicative purpose differs between specialized and popularized texts that respectively are scientific exposition for the first and informative for the second one. Therefore, according to the skopostheory, the purpose, the communicative functions, the target audience and the context of the target text guide the translation process and determine the linguistic and pragmatic choices of the new text. In the same way, popularizations take into account all these factors in the choice of a more accessible language as they are addressed to a wider audience of non-specialists with an Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 243 informative purpose. Secondly, translation and popularization share the feature of the temporal distance between the two texts: in the translation process the source text is produced some time before the target text, and in the same way the specialized text is produced before the popularized one. Thirdly, as in the translation process, the target text (the popularization) is often considered inferior to the source text (the specialized text). The inferiority of the popularized text is clearly one of the reasons why jurists never allowed the simplification of legislative texts with the use of plain language. As popularization involves texts about specialized knowledge that are not addressed to specialists, popularizations are considered simplified versions of specialized texts, often with the pejorative meaning of “vulgarizations” (Myers 2003: 266). But popularizations cannot just be considered simplified versions of their specialized counterparts. On the contrary, they should be considered discursive reconstructions created for an audience different from the specialized one. They more efficiently need to be considered as different vehicles of discursive practices. Therefore, a popularization is a textualization of specialized knowledge in another setting, a “recontextualization” (Calsamiglia 2003: 142). Popularization is a routinized social activity that has led to the creation of a number of fairly stable genres (Myers 2003: 267) and European informative brochures can be regarded as one of them. The EU popularizes some of its legislative documents with informative brochures and booklets. As an increasing number of Commission documents are made accessible to the general public, FOG could increase if information about the Commission’s activities was given only through the legislative documents. In fact there are three groups of people likely to read Commission documents: EU insiders (colleagues in the Commission or other institutions), outside specialists and the general public. The third group is by far the largest and most important - at least theoretically. Although Eurolanguage presents simplified features as opposed to standard legal English, it still makes use of a complex and unclear language for the layperson. The European Union, aware of such a democratic gap (also caused by the incommunicability between the law and the general public) promotes the active participation of the citizenship through the publication of brochures and booklets that have the function of informing its citizens of the Community policies and activities. As a specialized text and a popularization have different aims, a shift in the use of language and in the textual genre can be observed. In the passage from specialization to popularization there is a shift, in this specific case, from a binding regulation to an informative brochure. We assist then to a different textualization of the content due to the re-contextualization through a process of intralingual translation. The two different texts cover the same domain but use a different language, because they aim at two different communicative purposes: regulating and informing. The shift from one communicative purpose to the other one provokes a shift in the textual genre. The brochure, that Monica Rizzo 244 is the popularized text of the Regulation previously examined, has been here analysed to understand which linguistic and textual devices are used to express the same content - European regional policy - with a reshaped language aiming at a different purpose: informing rather than regulating. The most striking feature that distinguishes the Brochure from the Regulation is the use of images, pictures and tables. The brochure is printed in colours, and visual and graphic elements are fundamental features of popularization as they have the role of catching the attention and the interest of the reader. The cover page contains a picture representing workers in a building site, and therefore it gives the visual representation of the title of the brochure “Working for the regions”. The Brochure is introduced by a letter of the Member of the European Commission who is responsible for regional policy and who addresses the reader, using the first person singular and explaining the benefits of European Regional Policy for citizens’ lives. A picture of the Officer accompanies the letter, thus giving Europe a real and human identity. The Brochure is divided into chapters, all listed in the index placed on the second page. Each chapter is dedicated to a topical theme for European regional policy and each contains a section focusing on a single Member State and indicating the budget the State receives to implement regional policy, its focus programmes and its targets. Furthermore, each page contains the flag of the concerned Member State and a key image representing the specific actions the State is implementing using the allocated funds. For example, the first chapter is named “Why European regional policy matters” and it contains data about Bulgaria in its first page and a picture representing “The new airport in Sofia” and data about Estonia in its second page and a picture representing “New roads in Estonia: the Via Baltica motorway”. Every chapter is opened by a general title that gives an immediate idea of the content of the chapter. The title is expressed in the more transparent way possible and it often addresses the reader directly with a question, such as “Who receive how much and for what? ”. After the title, a subtitle follows and it gives a first concise answer to the question-title. Such a concise answer is then developed in the body of the chapter. While the titles and the subtitles are expressed with the only use of general language, some technical and specialized terms are found in the body of the chapter, due to the topic of the brochure. In the text of the brochure, emphasis is given to technical terms and to key words through the use of bold font, i.e “European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)” and “Convergence” on the one side, and terms such as “added value” and “solidarity” on the other side. Technical terms are explained either in the glossary placed at the end of the brochure or in the text itself. The same observation applies to the use of acronyms. Compared to the original text - the Regulation - fewer technical terms are used in the Brochure. Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 245 The need for clarity leads to the use of figurative language; the lower specificity of figurative referents is emphasized in the text by expressions as socalled (Gotti 2005: 213): Today, 43% of the economic output and 75% of investments in research and innovation are concentrated on just 14% of the European territory, the so-called pentagon between London, Hamburg, Munich, Milan and Paris. (my emphasis) In the previous passage, the use of a metaphor establishes a link between the expressed concept and an image known to the audience, thus presenting a new concept through a known one. Elsewhere the specialized terms are given in inverted commas to point out the prescriptive value of the source, quoting the name of programmes (in the first example) and to point out the use of the specialized term in its contextualisation (in the second example): For the 2007-13 period, Member States and regions must prepare ‘National Strategic Reference Frameworks’ and national and regional ‘Operational Programmes’. EU regulations and ‘Community Strategic Guidelines on Cohesion’ lay down common rules for the funds’ management, while taking into account the overarching priorities of the EU’s Growth and Jobs Agenda -to become a zone of high growth, creating new and better jobs. In ‘Convergence’ regions, these priorities must receive 60% of the total available funding, and 75% in all other regions. (my emphasis) In the second case, the specialized term “Convergence” is used in the Brochure with an adjectival function and it is linked to those entities (i.e. objective and Member State) that are involved in the specialized concept of convergence. The introduction of the Brochure “In a nutshell: a policy for Europe’s regions” is basically a popularization of the Articles 1 and 3 of the Regulation for regional policy, respectively covering the Subject matter and the Objectives of the legislative document. The objectives of the European Regional policy are clearly expressed in two different codes in the two different texts: To that end, the ERDF, the ESF, the Cohesion Fund, the EIB and the other existing Community financial instruments shall each contribute in an appropriate way towards achieving the following three objectives: […]. 27 […] The three objectives are supported by three funds, namely the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the Cohesion Fund and the European Social Fund (ESF). […]. (my emphasis) 27 Art. 3(2). Monica Rizzo 246 The main differences are found, apart from the length, in the use of acronyms and in the use of modality. While the acronyms are explained in the popularized text, they are not expressed in full in the regulation. Concerning the use of modality, while the regulation sets a deontic obligation with the modal verb shall, the brochure informs about the objectives to reach through the funds using the indicative present tense in a passive form. It is clear the conciseness of the popularized text compared to the length of the legislative document. For example the “Operational Programmes” to use the funds are described with the use of 413 words (organised in 2 articles - 32 and 33 - and several paragraphs in the Regulation and with 115 words (placed in the Chapter “How it works”) in the brochure where all the technical details are left out. As already mentioned, the two documents have two different communicative functions (prescriptive and informative), and therefore they achieve two different communicative aims using different linguistic strategies. One of the most important linguistic devices for legislative texts is the use of modality in order to clearly set up rules for all the parties involved. Here follows an example of the different use of modality in two passages covering the same topic in the different texts: The Member State shall present a national strategic reference framework which ensures that assistance from the Funds is consistent with the Community strategic guidelines on cohesion, and which identifies the link between Community priorities, on the one hand, and its national reform programme, on the other. 28 For the 2007-13 period, Member States and regions must prepare ‘National Strategic Reference Frameworks’ and national and regional ‘Operational Programmes’. 29 (my emphasis) While in the legislative document a deontic obligation is set for the grammatical subject, an external obligation is expressed for the grammatical subject of the brochure. This is just one of the numerous examples of the opposite use of modality between the regulative and the informative text. The temporal distance between the regulation and the brochure provokes other differences in the content of the two texts. In fact some chapters of the brochure are dedicated to the description of some programmes that have already been implemented within the framework of regional policy and under the legal rules set up in the regulation. For example, this is the case of three new instruments (JASPERS, JEREMIE and JESSICA) that “enable the most efficient and sustainable use of Structural and Cohesion Funds in the 2007-13 period” (Working for the regions 2008: 22-23). Such operative tools are clearly not mentioned in the Regulation that represents the legal basis on which 28 Art. 27(1). 29 “Working for the regions” (2008: 6). Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 247 the instruments have been created afterwards. As the regulation entered into force in 2006 and the brochure was published in 2008, the latter also contains one chapter “Does it make a difference? ” with some data concerning the benefits of the policy at regional and national level. Such information is necessary in order to concretely prove the effectiveness of European policy and it is also necessary as it is connected to article 47 of the regulation that specifically imposes a control of the quality and an evaluation of the programmes: Evaluations shall aim to improve the quality, effectiveness and consistency of the assistance from the Funds and the strategy and implementation of operational programmes with respect to the specific structural problems affecting the Member States and regions concerned, while taking account of the objective of sustainable development and of the relevant Community legislation concerning environmental impact and strategic environmental assessment. […]. Finally, the brochure - as an informative text aiming at reinforcing the connection between the European institution and the general public - has a section “At your service” that contains all the external links where extra-textual information on regional policy is available. Aware of the approximation of the content in the popularized text, this last section invites the addressees to read more and also to contact the European Commission’s Regional Policy Directorate-General for more detailed information. 5 Concluding remarks Despite the efforts to bring Europe closer to its citizens and despite the simplified features distinguishing Eurolanguage from standard legal English, the language for the European communication still remains a source of obscurity which is worsened by the lack of a single legal system of reference and appropriate drafting standards. All these traits negatively influence the level of accessibility to European legal documents for the citizenship. The analysis of the Regulation (EC) N. 1083 clearly shows that simplification principles coming from the Plain Language Movement and the Fight the Fog campaign do not overcome the status of recommendations or proposals and do not manage to become concrete innovations to modify the current legal style. Although the European legal language shows simplified elements when compared to standard legal English, it still presents negative traits of complexity, obscurity and ambiguity. The European legislation seems to maintain the conservative nature of legal cultures, following the path of stability and continuity with the legal drafting style. The immediate result of such a drafting policy is the gap between the law and the layperson, and consequently between the European Union and its citizens. The European Union, being aware of the fact that Eurolanguage does not represent an element of connection between Europe and its citizens, prefers to Monica Rizzo 248 create informative brochures and booklets rather than to simplify the language in use in the legislative texts. The linguistic policy of the European Union aims at popularizing prescriptive documents with the creation of new textual genres rather than simplifying the existing normative documents. Such informative brochures are certainly a good instrument for advertising and promoting European activities, but they are not an appropriate instrument for substituting legislative documents. As underlined before, the analysed brochure approximates the content of the respective legislative document. Such an approximation cannot be considered a negative trait of the popularized document but an intrinsic feature of the textual genre itself. Moreover, brochures and booklets are not available for every legislative document the EU produces, and therefore they do not represent the solution for narrowing the gap between Europe and its citizens. It is clear enough that the two documents, and more generally the two textual genres, need to maintain their specific linguistic features to reach their different communicative purposes. EU popularizations, when available, are definitely useful instruments that can be used as guidelines when reading and understanding legislation that, for several reasons, is still expressed with a complex and sometimes obscure language. References Bhatia, V.K. (1993). Analysing genre: language use in professional settings. London: Longman. Bhatia, V.K. (1994). Cognitive structuring in legislative provisions. In Gibbons, J. (ed.). Language and the law. New York: Longman, 136-155. Caliendo, G. (2004). Modality and Communicative Interaction in EU Law. In Candlin, C./ Gotti, M. (eds.). Intercultural Aspects of Specialized Communication. Bern: Peter Lang, 241-259. Caliendo, G./ Di Martino, G./ Venuti, M. (2005). Language and Discourse Features of EU Secondary Legislation. In Cortese G./ Duszak, A. (eds). Identity, Community, Discourse. English in Intercultural Settings. Bern: Peter Lang, 381-404. Calsamiglia, H. (2003). Popularization Discourse. Discourse Studies, 5/ 2, 139-46. Cinato, L. (2010). Terminologia italiana e tedesca nei documenti COM. In Raus, R. (a cura di). Multilinguismo e terminologia nell’Unione Europea. Problematiche e prospettive. Milano: Hoepli, 85-114. Cosmai, D. (2003). Tradurre per l’Unione Europea: problematiche e strategie operative. Milano: Hoepli. Garzone, G. (2002). Tradurre la convenzione internazionale: aspetti testuali e pragmatici. In Schena, L./ Snel Trampus R. (a cura di). Traduttori e giuristi a confronto II. Interpretazione traducente e comparazione del discorso giuridico, Vol. II, Bologna: CLUEB, 37-70. Gibbons, J. (ed.) (1994). Language and the Law. New York: Longman. Gotti, M. (1996). Il linguaggio della divulgazione: problematiche di traduzione intralinguistica. In G. Cortese (ed.). Tradurre i linguaggi settoriali. Torino: Cortina, 217-235. Intralingual Translation as a Tool of Popularization: From Law to Information 249 Gotti, M. (2005). Investigating Specialized Discourse. Bern: Peter Lang. Jakobson, R. (1959/ 2000). On Linguistic Aspects of Translation. In Venuti, L. (ed.) (2004). The Translation Studies Reader, London/ New York: Routledge, 113-118. Melinkoff, D. (1963). The language of the law. Boston: Little Brown & Co. Myers, G. (2003). Discourse Studies of Scientific Popularization: Questioning the Boundaries. Discourse Studies, 5/ 2, 139-46. Swales, J. (1990). Genre Analysis. English in Academics and Research Settings. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Tiersma, P. (1999). Legal Language. Chicago/ London: The University of Chicago Press. Trosborg, A. (1997). Rhetorical strategies in legal language: discourse analysis of statutes and contracts. Gunther Narr: Tübingen. Williams, C. (2005). Tradition and Change in Legal English. Verbal Constructions in Prescriptive Texts. Bern: Peter Lang. Reference EU Documents - European Parliament, Council and Commission (2003), “EU’ s Joint Practical Guide for persons involved in the drafting of legislation within the Community institutions”: http: / / eur-lex.europa.eu/ en/ techleg/ index.htm (versione inglese); http: / / eurlex.europa.eu/ it/ techleg/ pdf/ it.pdf (versione italiana). - Directorate-general for Translation, European Commission (2010), “How to Write Clearly”: http: / / ec.europa.eu/ translation/ writing/ clear_writing/ how_to_write_clearly _en.pdf Texts analysed - Council Regulation (EC) N. 1083/ 2006 of 11 July 2006 laying down general provisions on the European Regional Development Fund, the European Social Fund and the Cohesion Fund and repealing Regulation (EC) N. 1260/ 1999. - Working for the regions, EU Regional Policy 2007-203, (January 2008). A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Laws Concerning Women: Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon’s Contribution to Improve the Legal Status of Mid-Victorian Married Women Silvana Sciarrino (University of Palermo, Italy) 1 Introduction The name of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon (1827-1891) is linked to the feminist movement in mid-Victorian England and to the campaigns she led for the legal recognition of married women and for the female right to vote, to work, and to have access to education. The eldest daughter of radical MP Benjamin Smith and of Anne Longden, who never married, Barbara was brought up by her father himself after her mother’s death. She was not acknowledged by some of the Smith relations, including Florence Nightingale, for being illegitimate; a position which did not limit her social mobility, also thanks to the independent income yielded by the shares and property she had received from her father. Leigh Smith was a talented woman but female access to University was a taboo until the end of the 1840s, when Queen’s and Bedford College at London University offered women education, to be followed by Oxford and Cambridge in the 1860s and 1870s. “The professions of law and medicine, whether or not closed by law, are closed in fact”, she would write in A Brief Summary (1854: 3). Moreover, education was generally inadequate for middle-class girls, as she was made aware of at Bedford College. Thus, her first plea was for the education of women, which would engage her in educational experiments and make her one of the founders of Britain’s first female university college - Girton College, Cambridge. Education was not her only concern: art, philanthropy and politics lay at her feet as well. She became an appreciated painter, but, above all, she was a social reformer in a century in which the issue of the woman condition and her demand for emancipation was hotly debated, pushed into the mainstream of British political life by the publication of Mary Wollstonecraft’s works. Wollstonecraft’s A Vindication of the Rights of Women (1792) was one of Leigh Smith’s readings, together with Caroline Norton’s 1 English Laws for 1 Caroline Norton, née Sheridan, was involuntary protagonist and victim of a sex scandal, being accused of “criminal conversation” with the Whig Home Secretary LordMelbournby her husband. Although George Norton lost the trial, she was evicted from her home with only her personal belongings and denied the right to visit her sons. Silvana Sciarrino 252 Women in the Nineteenth Century (1854), the pamphlet in which Norton campaigned for the reform of divorce and property laws, and John Jane Smith Wharton’s 2 Exposition of the Laws relating to the Women of England, showing their rights, remedies and responsibilities, 1853. The legal and civil rights of women were another of Leigh Smith’s interests and in Wharton’s work she found all that was necessary. She had studied law and could wade through his Exposition, but was not at all sure that other women could do the same, all the more so as his valuable work consisted of more than 500 pages. Thus, she undertook to produce an abstract of its main points having in mind Wharton’s objective, as stated in the preface to the 1848 first edition of his Dictionary, “compression, avoiding obscurity and yielding information easily and effectively”. The outcome, not merely a précis but the fruit of her own study, was a clear and concise pamphlet which was published in 1856 and again in 1869 after the first edition (1854) 3 . As a matter of fact, she carried out a form of popularization. 2 Focus on the laws relating to women before Leigh Smith When discussing the issue of the woman’s legal status, one is confronted with the evidence that gender matters in the case of rights within marriage in Victorian England. It is well known, for example, that patriarchal relations and male hegemony in marriage did not allow divorced or separated women to retain property and have custody of their children, not to speak about the fact that criminal offences were not considered such if committed by a woman. A brief survey of the laws before Barbara Leigh Smith’s pamphlet well illustrates the point. It includes, among the others, the works of Sir Matthew Hale 4 (1609 -1676), William Blackstone 5 (1723-1780), and John Jane Smith Wharton (1816 or 1817-1867). Sir Matthew Hale is best known by his History of the Pleas of the Crown, 1736, one of the main authorities on the common law of criminal offences. Here, among those committed upon a woman, he mentions “the carnal knowledge of any woman above the age of ten years against her will, and of a woman-child under the age of tenyears with or against her will” (Book I : 628), and justifies his pronouncement that “the husband cannot be guilty of a rape committed by himself upon his lawful wife” in the light of the status of a married woman, according to which, “[…] by their mutual matrimonial con- 2 A barrister of the Middle Temple, Wharton was the author of a number of legal treatises in addition to his Law Lexicon, orDictionary of Jurisprudence. 3 Quotations are from the 1856 and 1869 editions. 4 Sir Matthew Hale is best known by his History of the Pleas of the Crown, one of the main authorities on the common law of criminal offences. 5 William Blackwell’s lectures at Oxford established English law as a subject of University study alongside civil and common law. His Commentaries are considered the first complete description of English law. A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Laws Concerning Women 253 sent and contract the wife hath given up herself in this kind unto her husbandwhich she cannot retract” (Book I : 629). On Hale’s scheme of organization Blackstone based his own. Yet the latter’s represents a radical departure from contemporary legal thought and would long dominate the common law system, also contributing to the Constitution law of the United States of America. A theorist of the British common law, Blackstone made an effort to reduce it to a unified whole of writs and statutes. Blackstone was one of the first to comment on women’s traditional legal status in his Commentaries on the Laws of England, basically his Oxford Lectures published between 1765 and 1769 and collected in four books. With reference to the rights of persons, discussed in the first book, he described the married woman’s status as follows: By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law: that is the very being or legal existence of the married woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least incorporated and consolidated into that of the husband; under whose wing, protection and cover, she performs everything; and is there called in our law-French a feme - covert […] and her condition during her marriage is called her coverture. (Book I : 442). The married woman’s rights depended on her being one person with man under the law, with the result that if she united herself to a man, unlike a woman of twenty one [who] becomes an independent human creature, capable of holding and administering property to any amount […] she is again considered as an infant - she is again under ‘reasonable restraint’ - she loses her separate existence, and is merged in that of her husband. (1856: 8) 3 A Brief Summary Like Blackstone’s, Leigh Smith’s aim was to make available to the general public, precisely to her intended readers, the clearest account of the laws under which women lived, as the words in italics of the title show: “A Brief Summary, in plain language, of the Most Important Laws of England Concerning Women”. The three editions indicate that she revised the text, accepting the suggestions of all the experts and friends she was in touch with - thanks to her Unitarian network. The topics dealt with are “Legal Conditions of Unmarried Women or Spinsters”; “Laws concerning Married Women”; “Usual Precautions against the Laws concerning the Property of Married Women”; “Separation and Divorce”; “Laws concerning a Widow”; “Laws concerning Women in Other Relationships”; “Laws concerning Illegitimate Children and Their Mothers”. Leigh Smith’s statements are throughout plain and direct as when she writes that “a single woman has the same rights to property, to protection Silvana Sciarrino 254 from the law, and has to pay the same taxes to the State, as a man”; somewhere else, they sound ironical, at least to a twenty-first century reader, when she comments that a married woman’s body and money “belong” equally to her husband, that a widow “is not bound to bury her dead husband it being the duty of his legal representative” or that, as opposed to the belief of philosophical thinkers according to which “the tendency of progress is gradually to dispense with law”, “women, more than any other members of the community, suffer from over-legislation” as they always need external restraints (1856 : 3, 4, 6, 8). A passage follows, not present in Wharton, in which Leigh Smith compares the English laws with those of other countries, informing her readers that in France, thanks to the régime de communauté or regime dotal, marriage does not make any difference between women and men; that in Turkey women control their own inheritance when married, and that, according to the Hungarian law, single females “by marriage came into full control of all their estates” (1856: 8). Finally, a global evaluation of the American laws makes her conclude: “What changes we find in the American laws are improvements upon ours” (1856: 10). (Italics mine). In this page, the last but one of the second edition, the author’s assertions are never couched but strong and clear, and the presence of editorial pronouns characterizes her style as in the quotation above and in the following: “We do not say that these laws of property are the only unjust laws concerning women to be found in the short summary which we have given, but they form a simple, tangible, and not offensive point of attack” (ibid.).(Italics mine). In the third edition, a few additions are worth mentioning, namely, the introduction and “an explanation of some legal terms used”, a list of which is given in appendix and where some vulgar errors are reported, like the erroneous, and amusing, belief “that a man can sell his wife” (1869: iii). First of all, Leigh Smith points out that the English law has no codification, an absence which gives rise to misunderstanding and justifies the very writing of her Summary “in brief and untechnical language” (1869: vii). Once again the will to make herself understood is expressed by the author, who stresses the difference between herself and the so called “race” of lawyers (see quotation below), making it clear to the layman that she shares the widespread, critical attitude to them, considered as a division of mankind, having the same activities and characterized by distinguishing traits, different from common people. She goes on quoting the sources of Law - Acts of Parliament, or Statute Law, Reported decisions of judges, or cases law, Customs judicially recognised as in use (customary laws), and explains that Common Law, sometimes opposed to Statute Law, was “handed down by word of mouth from one race of lawyers to another” (ibid.). A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Laws Concerning Women 255 Bentham’s definition of Common Law is also reported as “judge-made law” and an explanation added: “it is sometimes called unwritten law, because it is not written in the sense of a legislative enactment” (ibid.). By far the most interesting passage is the one referring to the unique position of the Queen Consort, very much “unlike other married women”, “the only wife in England” who has the right “to purchase land and make leases […] and sue, and be sued alone” (1869: 1). Less privileged women would have had to wait until 1870, when the Married Woman’s Property Act was passed, and for the further Married Woman’s Property Act of 1882 6 . Moreover, a new section is introduced concerning women’s inclusion in the restrictions of the Factory Act - ‘Recent laws in which women are specially named’. The reference is to the Factory Acts passed by the Parliament of the United Kingdom to limit the number of hours worked by women and children, first in the textile industry, then in all industries. Presumably, Leigh Smith refers to the Factory Acts of 1850 and 1856, which included the same provisions and redefined the workday established under the Act of 1844 and 1847. In any case, the addition indicates that the author’s aim is to provide her readers with update information. 4 Leigh Smith and Wharton compared Although, as a whole, she did not change the scheme she had first adopted, a comparison with Wharton’s Exposition highlights a few changes in A Brief Summary, the first section of which deals with the ‘Legal Conditions of Unmarried Women or Spinsters’ - Wharton’s first section is ‘On Infancy’. The reasons why Leigh Smith gave prominence to the status of the unmarried woman may have been due to the circumstance that, as has already been said, in a way the single woman had privileges that the married one did not have. The assertive note of her initial argument states: “A single woman has the same rights to property, to protection from the law, and has to pay the same taxes to the State as a man. Yet, a woman of the age of twenty-one, having the requisite property qualifications, cannot vote” (1856: 2). The cons follow the pros, the woman is denied the right to vote and academic education, as the author herself had experienced. She does not comment on the machinery of the law but gives a lucid statement of it maintaining her authorial integrity: “These are the only special laws concerning single women: the law speaks of men only but women are affected by all the laws and incur the same responsibilities in all contracts and doings as men” (ibid.). By the time she had sifted through the existing laws, Leigh Smith had become aware that a woman could be recognized as a citizen if she had legal 6 The Married Woman’s Property Act of 1870 allowed women to keep earnings or property acquired after marriage; a further Married Woman’s Property Act in 1882 allowed women to retain what they owned at the time of marriage. Silvana Sciarrino 256 personality. This is confirmed by the issue of ‘seduction’, with reference to which she points out that the woman exists legally only in connection with her father: “if a woman is seduced, she has no remedy against the seducer, nor has her father, excepting as he is considered in law as being her master and she his servant, and the seducer having deprived him of her services”(ibid.). Leigh Smith polarizes the sexes either in a genre opposition (woman/ seducer) or in class terms (her master/ his servant). In other cases, as in the sections which appear as ‘Concubinage’ and ‘Harlotry’ and ‘Trustship’ in Wharton where he writes that the unwedded relationship is not recognized in any way by English jurisprudence, she simply states: “If a man place a woman in his house, and treat her as his wife, he is responsible for her debts to the same extent as if they were actually married” (1856: 7). The circumstance that her parents never married may have led Leigh Smith to carefully avoid using terms indicating the parties of the unwedded relationship (paramour/ mistress). Her own condition of illegitimate daughter of Benjamin Smith and Anne Longden, who went under the pseudonym ‘Mrs Leigh’, the name of Benjamin’s relatives on the Isle of Wight, when she was pregnant, made her write a brief comment on the rights of an illegitimate child : “the rights of an illegitimate child are only such as he can acquire; […] He can acquire a surname by reputation, but does not inherit one”(ibid.). The issues of unwedded relationship and illegitimacy played a role in her activity as a social reformer as she identified with the ‘wrongs’ suffered by women. Leigh Smith’s assertion on the married woman’s loss of identity, of her being under her husband’s protection or cover has already been quoted. This is a powerful statement which, from an opposite (male) view, could be used to demonstrate that the husband was vulnerable because legally responsible for his wife’s debts contracted before marriage. On the other side, the husband was the owner of his wife’s body and he could “enforce his right by a writ of habeas corpus” 7 (1856: 4). Here she turns into an understatement what Wharton had defined prostitution within marriage. 5 Concluding remarks The Englishwoman’s Review wrote that A Brief Summary, largely the outcome of Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon’s own study and activity, although “very thin and insignificant looking” was “destined to be the small end of the wedge which was to change the whole fabric of the law” (1891: 149). The pamphlet was widely read and discussed and, after the publication of its second edition, was brought to the attention of the Law Amendment Society (LAS), which was dedicated to reforming the anomalies caused by the pres- 7 In the third edition the author adds: “but in practice this is greatly modified”(1869: 10.) A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Laws Concerning Women 257 ence of two conflicting legal systems, Common Law and Chancery Law in Equity. 8 A Brief Summary was the author’s contribution to the war of words which characterized the debate on the Woman Question throughout the 19 th century. Its author proves to be well equipped both as thinker and writer. A paragraph by paragraph analysis shows that she adopted a strategy based on implied argument and the clarity and directness with which she summarized the legal status of adult English women indicates that she was sure of her stance regarding women’s rights. Her work, along with others, led to the 1870 Married Woman’s Property Act, which created a major change in nineteenth-century British Property law as stated in its most important sections - 1, 7, 8, 14. The Act’s significance was that for the first time the married woman was allowed to be the legal owner of the money she earned, to inherit property and money up to £ 200, to hold rented property in her own name and inherit rented property, and to maintain her children from the profits earned from her personal property. This marked the end of coverture, the condition in which the woman surrendered her legal existence on marriage, and the beginning of her recognition as femmesole, separate legal being Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon’s was no minor contribution to the achievement, which was her dream as well, that women should take up their full roles as citizens alongside men. Appendix EXPLANATION OF SOME LEGAL TERMS USED (1869) ACTS OF PARLIAMENT. These are the written records of the laws of realm. ALIMONY. The maintenance to the wife, allowed by the law in the case of a qualified divorce; it is settled at the discretion of the judge, according to the circumstances of the case. ASSURANCE is the title or legal evidence by which an estate is assured by the owner. CANON LAW is a body of Roman ecclesiastical law, relative to matters over which that Church assumed to have jurisdiction. CHATTELS include all property, moveable or immoveable, which is not freehold, copyhold, or inheritable. They are either real or personal. Personal Chattels are all property not connected with the freehold. 8 Leigh Smith explains: “The term Common Law is sometimes opposed to equity […] another kind of case-law administered by Lord Chancellor and his substitutes, and was, at first, introduced in order to soften the rigour and adjust the inequalities resulting from the harsh use of the Common Law; in legal words, the correction of that wherein the law, by reason of its universality, is deficient” (1869,viii). Silvana Sciarrino 258 CHOSE, in French, signifies a thing; and a chose in action is a thing of which a man has not the possession or actual enjoyment, but is floating or pending, and which he can claim by action at law. COVERTURE. The condition of a married woman; under the cover or protection her husband. CUSTOM is long-established usage, and, if it be general throughout the Kingdom, forms part of the common or unwritten law. General customs are determined by the judges, but particular customs used in some towns, boroughs, or cities, are determinable by a jury. The distinction between custom and prescription is this: custom is a local or general usage, not annexed to any person; prescription is a personal usage, and not annexed to any place. DEED. A solemn writing, or paper, or parchment, by means of which, in company with certain formalities called execution, property is in certain cases transferred from one or more persons to one or more persons, or a contract is made by one or more persons with one or more other persons. DOMICILE means generally the home of a person, the place where he lives and lodges, and may be seen, and communicated with. The domicile of a child or minor is that of the parents. An illegitimate child, having no father in contemplation of law, follows the domicile of its mother. A married woman follows the domicile of her husband; and a widow retains the domicile EQUITABLE ESTATE. A right of ownership recognised in courts of equity, as existing in one or more persons co-temporaneously (sic) with the recognition in Courts of Common Law of another right of ownership called the “legal estate”, existing in one or more other person. FELONY. The graver class of crime, such as murder, rape, burglary, arson, all (with the exception of the first) punished with penal servitude. FEME SOLE. A single woman. Hence a married woman, who by the custom of London trades on her own account, the husband not being liable for her dealings, is called a feme sole trader, because, with respect to her trading, she is the same as a single woman. FREE BENCH A right of ownership acquired in certain places, by a wife on her husband’s death, in one third part of his lands for her own life. MISDEMEANOR All crimes which do not amount to felony. PENAL SERVITUDE. A substitution for transportation. Persons under sentence of transportation may be removed to prison or penitentiary. PINMONEY. A provision made for the wife during the husband’s lifetime. It is always the first charge on the estate; so that the husband takes subject to it. If, however, a wife permit her husband to receive pinmomey (sic) or, which is the same thing do not claim it, and he maintains her, she cannot, after his death compel payment of more than one year’s arrears out of his estate. PUTATIVE. Commonly esteemed or reputed, in opposition to unquestionable. SALIC LAW, an ancient law made by Pharamond, King of Franks, and adopted in many European countries, by which males only are capable of inheriting. It was the existence of this law in Hanover that precluded from A Brief Summary, in Plain Language, of the Laws Concerning Women 259 the regal inheritance of that kingdom. The same law prevails in France under Napoleon III, the succession being limited, by decree of the senate, from male to male, by order of primogeniture, to the perpetual exclusion of females. SESSIONS. Petty Sessions, meetings of justices , monthly or oftener, to dispose of business of a summary nature. There are General, Quarter, and Special Sessions, for graver offenses. STATUTES. Acts of Parliament. TO SUE. To seek justice, or right, from one by legal process; to make legal claim; to prosecute in a civil action, for the recovery of a real or supposed right. USUFRUCT. Tenure of life. VULGAR ERRORS. We have already alluded to the erroneous belief among very ignorant people, that a man can sell his wife. There are several other vulgar errors held concerning the laws, though not particular about the laws specially applicable to women. It is a vulgar error to suppose that first cousins may marry, and second may not; the fact is, both may marry with each other. That persons born at sea have a right of settlement in Stepney parish. That a lease of upwards of ninety-nine creates a freehold. That a dead body can be arrested for debt. That the passage of a funeral creates a right of way. That to disinherit a child is necessary to leave it one shilling. WRIT, in its proper and more extensive signification, implies a writing under the Queen’s seal, whereby she confers some right or privilege, or commands some act to be done; but the most ordinary meaning of the word writ is the process connected with the origin and progress of a civil or criminal proceeding. The celebrated writ of habeas corpus is a writing directed to any person who detains another, commanding him to produce the body of the detained person at such a time and place, to give the reason of his detention, and to submit to whatever the judge or court by whom the writ is awarded may think fit. References Blackstone, W. Commentaries, 1765-1769. Hale M. (1713). Analysis of the Common Law. Hirsch, P. (1999). Barbara Leigh Smith Bodichon - Feminist, Artist and Rebel. London: Pimlico. Leigh-Smith [Bodichon], B. (1854). A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women, Together with a Few Observations Thereon. London: J. Chapman, 3-11. Reprinted in Groag Bell, S. and Offen, K.M. (eds.) (1983). Women, the Family,and Freedom: The Debate in Docu- Silvana Sciarrino 260 ments, Volume I, 1750-1880 . Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press, 300- 305. Leigh-Smith Bodichon. B., A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women (1854) reprinted in Lacey, C.(1987). Barbara Leigh Smith and the Langham Place Group. London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 30-34. Leigh-Smith, B., (1856). A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women, Together With a Few Observations Thereon. Second edition, revised with additions. London: Holyoake and Co,. Leigh-Smith Bodichon B. (1869). A Brief Summary in Plain Language of the Most Important Laws Concerning Women, Together With a Few Observations Thereon. Third Edition, revised with additions. London: Trübner &Co. Smith Wharton J. J. (1853). Exposition of the Laws relating to the Women of England, showing their rights, remedies and responsibilities. Other references: An Act to Amend the Law relating to the property of married women. Chapter 33 & 34 Vict .c 93, 1870. An Act to consolidate and amend the law relating to the property of married women. Chapter 45 & 46 Vict. 75, 1882. Raise your Hand against Smacking! Raising Awareness on Children’s Rights through Popularization Sole Alba Zollo (University of Naples Federico II, Italy) 1 Introduction The primary aim of the Council of Europe (COE) is to build a common democratic area in which the values of human rights, democracy and the rule of law are respected. In order to guarantee all Member States stability, social cohesion and economic growth the COE has been engaged in finding solutions to problems such as violence against children and women, trafficking in human beings, terrorism, etc. It has undertaken a series of initiatives to protect human rights through the implementation of legal measures but also through awareness-raising campaigns. In particular, this study focuses on the campaign Raise your hand against smacking! In 2008 the COE launched the campaign against corporal punishment of children. The Raise your hand against smacking! campaign aims at abolishing corporal punishment of children which is considered one of the most widespread forms of violence against children and a violation of their rights. Moreover, it aims at promoting positive parenting trying to convince adults to change their attitude. The campaign addresses both the general public and decision makers. It consists of two packs: a media pack which focuses on an animated TV spot and an information pack, containing books, brochures and leaflets. The corpus analyzed in this paper is based on the info pack collected from the COE’s website. The awareness-raising material targets different publics, from teachers, parents, children, legislators and professionals. Here the focus is on the booklets and leaflets which are presented in a user-friendly format, with plain language and colourful illustrations.Thus the materials to be analyzed are representative of different kinds of discourses, characterized by various degrees of specialization/ popularization, each with a different purpose (not only dissemination of knowledge, but also awareness raising, political persuasion, etc.) within a general critical discourse/ multimodal framework. I will try to answer the following research questions: a) What are the recurrent verbal and visual features employed in order to disseminate information on children’s rights in a friendly language? b) To what extent does the interplay between verbal and visual strategies contribute to creating an easy-to-read language? Sole Alba Zollo 262 c) Does the transfer from institutional/ legal language to popularizing text involve any contamination in discursive practices? 2 Popularization in institutional discourse Institutions are shaped by discourse and they in turn have the ability to create and impose discourses. Institutions’ power and politics are often exercised through the discourse of their members. Institutions are linked to power. Large organizations such as the COE need to maintain themselves and their position. They involve asymmetrical roles between experts and non-experts and language is constitutive of institutions. At the same time today they need to bridge the gap existing between experts and citizens so it is very common to see forms of popularization in institutional discourse. Nowadays the distinction between ordinary conversation and formality does not exist since both spheres colonize each other. This is observed in that process called by Fairclough (1992) conversationalization of public discourse. Popularization involves the transformation of specialized discourses - in this study institutional and legal discourse - into everyday knowledge. Popularization is a vast class of various types of communicative events or genres that involve the transformation of specialized knowledge into ‘everyday’ or ‘lay’ knowledge, as well as a re-contextualization of scientific discourse, for instance, in the realm of the public discourses of the mass media or other institutions. This means that popularization discourse needs to be formulated in such a way that non-specialized readers are able to construct lay versions of specialized knowledge and integrate these with their existing knowledge. (Calsamiglia and van Dijk 2004: 370) Again, Turnbull (1973) defines popularization a dialogue: […] a dialogue between the few and the many; the well-informed and the comparatively ignorant; the highly trained and the more-or-less untrained; between those who are already committed (to a skill, a professional standard, a way of looking at the world) and those who are searching for some such commitment. (Turnbull 1973: 70) It is a dialogue in which experts and non-experts integrate their different experiences, and subsequently explore together the ways in which specialized abilities and abstract knowledge can be used in everyday life. According to Turnbull, saying that popularization is a form of simplification is misleading. It is not a generalization of information to which both experts and laypeople must submit on the same level. It is in fact “a dialogue, a vigorous exchange of minds equal in status though not in knowledge or expertise” (Turnbull 1973: 75). In this study we will see how the texts analyzed are often subjected to a process of easification rather than simplification. These texts aim to guide readers through the text rather than helping them to understand the content directly. Raising Awareness on Children’s Rights through Popularization 263 This structure makes texts more accessible without modifying their content by developing in the reader specific strategies of reading. Bhatia affirms that: […] easification is not only a technique for text presentation, but also a learning strategy which helps the learner to simplify the text for himself. In simplification the focus is on the text, whereas in easification it is on the learner. Simplification approaches the problem from the teaching point of view, whereas easification does so from the learning point of view. In simplification, the primary focus is on the text and the question of learner’s intake is secondary. In easification, the primary focus is on the learner’s intake and rarely does it need to modify the text. (Bathia 1983: 46). Easification tries to make the text more accessible to the reader by using a variety of “easification devices”, whose purpose is to guide him/ her through the text. 2.1 Verbal and visual popularization as a strategy of persuasion Popularization is a social process consisting of various discursive-semiotic practices aiming to disseminate lay versions of legal knowledge among the public at large. It is important to take into account the communicative context which is relevant for the linguistic and visual analysis. Popularization involves not only a reformulation, but in particular also a re-contextualization of scientific knowledge and discourse that is originally producedin specialized contexts to which the lay public has limited access. This meansthat popularization discourse must always adapt to the appropriateness conditions and other constraints of the media and communicative events […]. (Calsamiglia and van Dijk 2004: 371). Producing a popularizing text means re-contextualizing and reformulating the original source in such a way that it is comprehensible for a different kind of addressee in a discursive context that is different from that of the original source. Hall et al affirm: Re-contextualization here refers, among other things, to various ways of appropriating, using, and reusing talk or text drawn from one context to make formulations available in another. However, recontextualization entails more than just the representation of speech and written text, as it presupposes another context, viz. ‘contextualization’. In this reading, ..., re-contextualization amounts to putting something in a different context and, by doing so, creating a new context for it. (Hall et al. 1999: 541) Since in the brochures and booklets taken into account the words are often accompanied by images, a multimodal analysis will allow to verify if both modes contribute to popularizing institutional and legal discourse. The rela- Sole Alba Zollo 264 tionship between the text and visual will be investigated in the data collected. Images and words are organized in a way to give immediate and understandable information but also to persuade. Visuals function largely to attract the reader to the text and convince him/ her about the content of the text. The COE presents the message in the most persuasive manner. Through popularization it wants to be convincing. Not only does it want to inform lay people on children’s rights but also to persuade and convince them that the COE is the only European organization which is working actively to protect and guarantee children’s rights. Thus, verbal and visual techniques of popularization become instruments of persuasion. 3 The theoretical framework Given the centrality of discourse in the critical and multimodal study of institutions, it is important to analyze the term itself. According to Brown and Yule (1983) discourse is language in use so it cannot be analyzed in its linguistic forms without taking into account the purposes and functions of language in human life. It is important to consider what the speaker/ writer is doing through discourse and this is linked to the context of its usage. This aspect is highlighted by CDA, which sees discourse as a form of social practice. In fact, Kitis and Milapides (1997) argue that: […] we maintain that language is embedded in societal, political, and ideological structures and processes. Meanings are not frozen entities, but are generated and regenerated as they are immersed in the processes and structures constituting them, on the one hand, but also being constituted by them, on the other. (Kitis and Milapides 1997: 558) Although CDA has focused on an analysis of linguistic structures, other scholars (Kress and van Leeuwen, 1996; Bateman, 2008) have emphasized the importance of visuals in discourses moving towards a multimodal analysis. Also visual structures express meanings and contribute to the whole meaning of texts. We live in a multimodal epoch where meaning is seldom made with verbal language alone so Kress and van Leeuwen have showed that communication is multimodal rather than monomodal. Today it is almost impossible to have a text which is pure language and additionally with digital technology it has become easier to blend modes. In fact, children’s rights discourse is communicated both linguistically and visually. Many of the texts analyzed communicate at a visual level too. The COE legitimizes its actions not only through language but also through images. Multimodal discourse analysis allows us to analyze both words and images to establish what types of discourses are realized. Multimodal discourse analysis is the study of different semiotic modes in a text or communicative event. It is “the combination of different semiotics Raising Awareness on Children’s Rights through Popularization 265 modes - for example, language and music - in a communicative artefact or event” (van Leeuwen, 2005: 281). A mode is not a rigid concept. New modes are continually being created and existing ones are transformed by their users in response to specific communication needs. Since modes are inseparable integrated (Lemke, 2002), multimodal discourse analysis aims at investigating in which way meaning is made in all the modes independently and how they work together to create a unified text or communicative event. It is usually believed that words are more important than visuals, but according to multimodal discourse analysts there is not hierarchy but difference. The sequential/ temporal characteristic of language-as-speech may lend itself with greater facility to the representation of action and sequences of action; while the spatial display of visual images may lend itself with greater facility to the representation of elements and their relation to each other. (Kress 2000: 147) Several approaches exist to multimodality but, as in this study the focus is on children’s rights discourse and its institutional context, I will take into account the social semiotics approach. Social semiotics focuses on discourse and its context, in fact the focus is on “[…] the way people use semiotic ‘resources’ both to produce communicative artefacts and events and to interpret them - which is also a form of semiotic - in the context of specific social situations and practices” (van Leeuwen, 2005: XI). By following Halliday’s ideational, inter-personal and textual metafunctions, Kress and van Leeuwen (1996) have applied these notions to images employing a slightly different terminology: representational, interactive and textual. The representational metafunction describes events and states in the world and in our minds. The meaning is given by the participants’ associations with this field. There is a stress on the syntax of images as a source of representational meaning. The interactive metafunction deals with the relationship between images and viewers. Distance, contact and point of view are the key factors for the realization of the interactive meaning. Finally the compositional metafunctionserves to organize the messages in the other metafunctions into a coherent whole. Information value, framing and salience are the three resources which allow to identify a text out of individual parts which coheres with the context in and for which it is produced. 4 Analysis The COE’s RecommendationRec(2006)19 on policy to support positive parenting is the legal text taken into account in this section. Recommendations are legal documents adopted by the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe and addressed to the Governments of the Member States which advise the states. They differ from other normative texts such as decisions, regulations and directives because they are not binding for Member States. Even Sole Alba Zollo 266 though they do not have legal force, they have a political weight since they make pressure on governments giving that their purpose is to prepare legislation in Member States. The RecommendationRec(2006)19 contains a lot of information on children’s rights which can be difficult to spread to lay people. The information distributed needs to be easy to understand, informative and able to reach many citizens. For this reason, in the Council of Europe’s campaign Raise your hand against smacking! popularizing texts such as booklets and brochures were created to clarify and facilitate understanding of specialized legal concepts. 4.1 Popularizing texts to explain the COE’s recommendation on positive parenting The COE created the illustrated brochure Policy to support positive parenting to explain what positive parenting means and how states can support it. This is an example of popularization of legal discourse since the brochure is an elaboration and popularization of the Appendix to the Recommendation Rec(2006)19on policy to support positive parenting (see Appendix). In 2006 the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe adopted this document in order to make Member States recognize the importance of parental responsibilities and provide them with enough support. The Appendix is composed of twelve sections in which all the legislative, administrative, financial measures announced in the recommendation are explained in more detail. The sections are defined as follows: 1. Definitions 2. Fundamental principles of policies and measures 3. Objectives 4. Incorporating children’s rights in public policies 5. Considering parents’ responsibilities, rights and obligations 6. Core components of policies and measures 7. Targeting of policies and measures 8. Parenting in situations of social exclusion 9. Qualitative guidelines for professionals 10. School and childcare environment 11. Key messages for parents and all those having responsibilities for children and their rearing 12. International co-operation The brochure, on the contrary, is basically divided into 4 parts. The 12 sections of the source text have been reformulated and re-arranged into 4 shorter sections. Explanation is the most common form of popularization used in the collected material. Definitions and descriptions, two forms of explanation, are used to make a text more comprehensible, “where definitions are used to Raising Awareness on Children’s Rights through Popularization 267 explain unknown words, and descriptions to explain unknown things” (Calsamiglia and van Dijk 2004: 379). For instance, on the first page (example 0) the topic is introduced through a long explanation and in the last paragraph there is an explicit reference to the recommendation. The second and third page (see Appendix) are the core sections and summarize in a way all the main points of the Appendix to the Recommendation. Each page starts with a simple and clear question: a) What does positive parenting actually mean? b) How can states support positive parenting? Schematization has been used to answer these two questions, re-arranging, especially through reduction or explanation, the content of the recommendation. For example, in answering the second question the brochure has created four separate schematic sections (see Fig. 1). There are four ways to support positive parenting: through family policy measures, through services to support parents, through mainstreaming children’s rights in policymaking and through awareness raising. Then each statement is explained in bulleted areas. Example 0 All parents want to be a good mother or a good father to their children. Yet parenting, besides being a joyous and rewarding experience, can also be a stressful one. Most parents have found themselves in situations where they would have welcomed help, not only in overcoming stress and controlling anger, but also in making everyday decisions. Other parents need specific attention because they are raising their children in difficult social, economic or personal circumstances. It is a challenging responsibility to raise children and create the conditions necessary for them to develop their potential to the fullest. While parenting is in many respects private, it is also a legitimate domain of public policy. Public authorities should create structures and services that enable parents to learn and practise good parenting skills. This would be a major step towards laying the groundwork for genuinely positive parenting. The Council of Europe has always been a forerunner in furthering understanding of childhood and family life experiences. Based on its wide experience and fully acknowledging that there are many different ways to raise children, it has drawn up a set of general principles that underlie the concept of positive parenting as well as guidelines on how policy makers can support it. The reference document for the Council of Europe’s work in this area is Committee of Ministers Recommendation (2006)19 on policy to support positive parenting. Figure 1 Raising Awareness on Children’s Rights through Popularization 269 This brochure is an example of easification. For example, by comparing the source text (example 1) to the target text (example 2) we can notice that the sentence concerning the necessity for parents to reconcile family and working life is shortened but the legislative content is not transformed and explained in a easy-to-read language. Here we could affirm that the brochure has been easified rather than simplified. As you can see in figure 1, the composition guides readers through the legal text rather than helping them to understand the content of the legal text directly. Example 1 (Recommendation) 6.3. Reconciling family and working life i. public authorities should create the necessary conditions - and employers should be encouraged - to implement a better reconciliation of family and working life through legal and other provisions (such as flexible working arrangements, adjustment of working and school hours, leave policies, various types of good quality childcare services, provisions for looking after children with disabilities as well as sick children, etc.); ii. the social partners should be encouraged to negotiate and develop tailor-made policies adapted to the specific needs of each company and of their employees; iii. good practices make it clear to employers that a comprehensive work/ life balance policy creates a win-win situation within companies. Example 2 (Brochure) Through family policy measures which: • secure appropriate living standards for families with children; • prevent child poverty and social exclusion of families with children; • enable parents to reconcile family and professional life; • provide high quality care services for all children. In addition, the statement is accompanied by a vignette (Fig. 2) which represents visually the concept and the caption is a further form of repetition. The image may contribute to gaining readers’ attention. It could have a positive effect on attention and the repetitive caption could increaselay readers’ comprehension. 270 Figu This b elemen lexical always you can been a it has u format institut This id sonific thing t phor - target a and co tance b ure 2 rochure is cl nts of promot choice of p s, fully, the CO n see in exam forerunner i undertaken a tive discourse tion itself. 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He order t extract eral Co Rights tions C comme ishmen ful mes Awareness on C ood giant who rtising, inform ure 3 rly, the broch popularizes l re there are d to define cor ted from the omment No. of the Child Convention o ent in which nt. By quoting ssage and in a Example 5 (b What is corp One way of punish a chil lawful assault make thems smacking, sp stark reality f tions Comm ment as “any to cause som volves hittin hand or with Children’s Righ o can support mative and le hure Abolish legal docume different exam rporal punish United Natio 8, 2006, pa d (CRC), whic on the Right it gave a pr g an authorit a way it contr brochure) oral punishmen defining corpo ld which, if dir t. Adults have a selves feel mor panking, donner for the child is ittee on the Ri y punishment in me degreeof pa ng (‘smacking’, h an implemen ts through Pop t families. Th egal - leads to ing corporal ents in order mples of re-co hment of chi ons Committe aragraph 11. ch is the mo ts of the Ch recise definiti tative source, ributes to crea nt of children? oral punishmen rected at an ad a great knack fo re comfortable r des fessées,pic that all of this ights of the Ch n which physic ain or discomfo ‘slapping’, ‘sp nt - whip, stick pularization he mixture of o the birth of punishment to communi ontextualizat ildren it uses ee on the Righ In 2006 the nitoring bod hild (UNCRC ion of corpor the COE con ating a more nt is as any ac dult, would con or inventing sp e about hittin chiare, dar un is violence. Th hild defines cor al force is used ort, however li panking’) childr k, belt, shoe, w f different dis a new hybrid of children. T cate to gener ion. In examp s a direct qu hts of the Chil Committee y of the Unit C), issued a ral or physic nveys a more persuasive m ction taken to stitute an unecial words to g children - azote. But the he United Naporal punishand intended ght. Most inren, with the ooden spoon, 271 scourses d genre. The key ral pubmple 5 in uotation ld, Genon the ted Nageneral cal punpowermessage. Sole Alba Zollo 272 etc. But it can also involve, for example, kicking, shaking or throwing children, scratching, pinching, biting, pulling hair or boxing ears, forcing children to stay in uncomfortable positions, burning, scalding or forced ingestion (for example washing children’s mouths out with soap or forcing them to swallow hot spices)”. In other sections instead of direct quotations the definition of positive parenting has been extracted from its original legal text and transformed in the new text-type. By comparing examples 6 and 7, you can see that in the brochure the definition has been expanded through explanation. In order to make the definition more accessible to laypeople the main clause in the recommendation is split up in two main clauses and moreover another explanation is provided. Then below a picture (see Fig. 4) is added where the caption “Children are not the property of their parent” clarifies the pictorial metaphor. Example 6 (brochure) What is positive parenting? Positive parenting refers to parental behaviour based on the best interests of the child. It provides nurturing, empowering, recognition and guidance, which involves the setting of boundaries to enable the full development of the child. Positive parenting supposes respect for children’s rights and a non-violent environment, where parents do not use corporal or psychologically demeaning punishment to resolve conflict or teach discipline and respect. Example 7 (Recommendation) “Positive parenting”: refers to parental behaviour based on the the child that is nurturing, empowering, non-violent and provides recognition and guidance which involves setting of boundaries to enable the full development of the child. Raising Figure The de recogn poral p detail. “What some p image the act Awareness on C 4 efinition of p nition and gui punishment o The page (Fi parents need pedagogic exe in the middle ive and powe Children’s Righ positive paren idance are m of children. Q ig. 5) is divid d”. This sche ercises, surely e seems to co erful role of th ts through Pop nting and th mentioned aga Questions and ded into two ematic compo y helps popul onnect the tw he COE. pularization e terms nurt ain in the boo d answers and parts “What osition, recall larize the con wo sections an turing, empo oklet Abolish d explained i children nee ling the struc ntent. Moreov nd again emp 273 owering, ing corin more ed” and cture of over, the phasizes 5 Figure 5 Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 275 This booklet presents the basic questions - what? why? and how? - and explains the legal steps necessary to eliminate corporal punishment, including actions needed to obtain public support.In the section “Questions, answers and debunked statements” popularization is reached through a mixture of conversational and formal style (example 8). Legal discourse is embedded in ordinary language. First of all, the paragraph starts with a direct question giving the feeling of a conversation and the answer contains a quotation from the United Nations Secretary-General’s study on violence against children (2006). Then, in order to sustain the statement that various studies on corporal punishment and its damage exist, a quotation from a scientific article published in 2002 (Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviours and experiences: A meta-analytic and theoretical review by Elizabeth Thompson Gershoff) has been added to enhance the truthfulness and plausibility of the booklet. Example 8 “Does it really hurt? ” Yes! Under Article 12 of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, children have a right to express their views on all matters that concern them, and to have their views given due weight. Children are beginning to tell us how much corporal punishment hurts them. As Paulo Sérgio Pinheiro explains in his report submitted to the UN General Assembly in October 2006: “Throughout the study process, children have consistently expressed the urgent need to stop all this violence. Children testify to the hurt - not only physical, but “the hurt inside” - which this violence causes them, compounded by adult acceptance, even approval, of it. Governments need to accept that this is indeed an emergency, although it is not a new emergency. Children have suffered violence at the hands of adults unseen and unheard for centuries. But now that the scale and impact of violence against children is becoming visible, they cannot be kept waiting any longer for the effective protection to which they have an unqualified right”. There is a great volume of research into the effects of corporal punishment and it convincingly confirms its potential damage, short and long term. “Corporal punishment by parents and associated child behaviours and experiences”, a meta-analysis of 88 research studies, was published in 2002 and overwhelmingly testifies to the dangers. While the findings are unsurprising, they are also in a sense irrelevant. We would not look for research into the effects of hitting women or elderly people to justify prohibition: this is a matter of fundamental rights. Figure 6 Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 277 The use of contracted forms (example 9) or the first person pronoun (example 10) is another way to show that these questions are typical of everyday conversation pronounced maybe by ordinary people who ignore the COE’s legislation. Example 9 “If parents are forced to give up using corporal punishment, won’t children end up spoilt and undisciplined? ” No! Real discipline is not based on force. It grows from understanding, mutual respect and tolerance. Babies start off completely dependent and as they grow, they rely on adults - especially their parents - to guide and support them towards self-disciplined maturity. Corporal punishment tells children nothing about how they should behave. On the contrary, hitting children is a lesson in bad behaviour. It teaches children that their parents, whom they hopefully love and respect, find it acceptable to use violence to sort out problems or conflicts. Children learn from what their parents do, not just from what they say. Corporal punishment and other humiliating forms of punishment are no substitute for positive forms of discipline which, far from spoiling children, are designed to ensure that they learn to think about others and about the consequences of their actions. States have an obligation to support positive parenting. The Committee of Ministers recommendation (Rec(2006)19) on policy to support positive parenting gives them the guidelines to do so. Example 10 “I only smack my children to stop them from hurting themselves.” Smacking is not protecting! Parents have to use physical actions to protect children - especially babies and young children - full time. It is a natural part of parenting. If a child is crawling towards a fire, or running into a dangerous road, of course parents use physical means to stop them - grab them, pick them up, show them and tell them about the danger. As the Committee on the Rights of the Child explains in its General Comment No. 8: “The committee recognises that parenting and caring for children, especially babies and young children, demand frequent physical actions and interventions to protect them. This is quite distinct from the deliberate and punitive use of force to cause some degree of pain, discomfort or humiliation. As adults, we know for ourselves the difference between a protective physical action and a punitive assault; it is no more difficult to make a distinction in relation to actions involving children. The law in all states, explicitly or implicitly, allows for the use of non-punitive and necessary force to protect people.” As one moves from legal texts to popularization one moves from documents created to instruct the Member States to texts designed to inform and per- Sole Alba Zollo 278 suade. The visuals in the popularizing texts usually depict individuals that the reader can identify with. The layout is structured to draw the reader’s attention and facilitate the comprehension of children’s rights. Moreover, these brochures and booklets result in a mixing and blending of different discourses by giving birth to an institutional info-promotional genre. 5 Concluding remarks In this paper I have tried to examine popularization especially in terms of its context features: the participants (the Council of Europe, campaign material readers), media (brochures and booklets), purposes (to explain legal concepts and raise awareness), and the knowledge gap between the institution and European citizens. The campaign material explored presents different linguistic strategies of popularization such as explanations, definitions, and examples, among many others, which allow lay readers to relate new knowledge to old knowledge. Apart from such linguistic forms of popularization, images and layout are used to attract readers’ attention and play a prominent role in popularization discourse. In order to narrow the gap between the organization and the lay public popularization is reached mainly through the composition of the layout; lines, bullet points and colours contribute to popularizing the legal discourse on children’s rights. This means that various linguistic and explanatory devices and visual facets are used to allow the lay public to familiarize with legal discourse on children’s rights. The study has focused on the role of the COE and its capacity to produce and disseminate discourses with institutional values by identifying which discourses are dominant in the organization. Popularization becomes an instrument to raise non-experts’ awareness on children’s rights but also to promote the institution itself. The persuasion of these text-types lies not only in the linguistic strategies employed but also in the exploitation of features such as images and colours. The visuals highlight the point of view of the institution. Often in the brochures we have a tension between a need to attract readers’ attention through colourful vignettes and the need to condense as much information as possible into a small space. The multimodal discourse analysis has demonstrated that the COE seeks to legitimize its existence and power through the re-contextualization and blending of legal, political and promotional discourses. Popularization leads to the birth of hybrid genres in which the boundaries between information and promotion are blurred providing an example of easy-to-read language. Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 279 References Bakhtin, M. M. (1986). Speech Genres and Other Late Essays. Austin, TX: University of Texas Press. Barthes, R. (1977). Image, Music, Text (essays selected and translated by S. Heath). London: Fontana Press. Bateman, J. A. (2008). Multimodality and Genre: A Foundation for the Systematic Analysis of Multimodal Documents. Basingstoke; New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Bhatia, V. K. (1983). Simplification v. Easification - The Case of Legal Texts. Applied Linguistics 4(1): 42-54. Bhatia, V. K. (2004). Worlds of Written Discourse: A Genre-Based View. London: Continuum International. Blommaert, J. (2005). Discourse. A Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Brown, G. and Yule, G. (1983).Discourse Analysis. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Calsamiglia, H. and van Dijk, T. (2004). Popularization Discourse and Knowledge about the Genome. Discourse & Society 15(4): 369-389. Ciapuscio, G.E. (2003). Formulation and Reformulation Procedures in Verbal Interactions between Experts and (Semi) Laypersons. Discourse Studies, 5 (2), 207-33. Fairclough, N. (1992). Discourse and Social Change. London: Polity. Fairclough, N. (2003). Analysing Discourse. Textual Analysis for Social Research. London: Routledge. Fairclough, N. and Wodak, R. (1997). Critical Discourse Analysis. In Van Dijk, T.A. (ed.) Discourse as Social Interaction. Discourse Studies: A Multidisciplinary Introduction. Vol. 2. London: Sage. Hall, C., Sarangi, S. et al. (1999). Speech Representation in Social Work Discourse. Text 19(4): 539-70. Hilgartner, S. (1990). The Dominant View of Popularization: Conceptual Problems, Political Uses. Social Studies of Science 20(3): 519-539. Iedema, R. (2003). Multimodality, resemiotization: extending the analysis of discourse as multi-semiotic practice. Visual Communication 2(1): 29-57. Jewitt, C. (ed.) (2009). The Routledge Handbook of Multimodal Analysis. London, New York: Routledge. Kitis, E. and Milapides, M. (1997). Read it and believe it: How metaphor constructs ideology in news discourse. A case study.Journal of Pragmatics 28: 557-590. Kress, G. (1985). “Ideological structures in Discourse”. In T.A. van Dijk (ed.) Handbook of Discourse Analysis (4 vols.). London: Academic Press. Kress, G. (2000). Text as the Punctuation of Semiosis: Pulling at some of the Threads. In Meinhof, U. H. and Smith, J. (eds) Intertextuality and the Media: From Genre to Everyday Life. Manchester: Manchester University Press. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (1996). Reading Images: the Grammar of Visual Design. London and New York: Routledge. Kress, G. and van Leeuwen, T. (2001). Multimodal Discourse. The Modes and Media of Contemporary Communication. London: Arnold. Sole Alba Zollo 280 Lemke, J. L. (2002). Travels in Hypermodality. Visual Communication 1(3): 299-325. Turnbull, M. (1973). What is Popularisation? The Political Quarterly 44(1): 70-76. van Leeuwen, T. (2005). Introducing SocialSemiotics. London: Routledge. Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 281 Appendix Recommendation Rec(2006)19of the Committee of Ministers to member stateson policy to support positive parenting (Adopted by the Committee of Ministers on 13 December 2006 at the 983rd meeting of the Ministers’ Deputies) The Committee of Ministers, under Article 15.b of the Statute of the Council of Europe, Considering that the aim of the Council of Europe is to achieve a greater unity between its member states, inter alia, by promoting the adoption of common rules; Referring to the work of the Council of Europe in the field of children and families and reaffirming in general the following legal instruments: - the Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (ETS No. 5), which protects the rights of everyone, including children; the European Social Charter (ETS No. 35) and revised European Social Charter (ETS No. 163), stating that “the family as a fundamental unit of society has the right to appropriate social, legal and economic protection to ensure its full development” (Article 16); the European Convention on the Exercise of Children’s Rights (ETS No. 160); the Convention on Contacts concerning children (ETS No. 192); the Recommendations of the Committee of Ministers to member states: No. R (84) 4 on parental responsibilities; No. R (85) 4 on violence in the family; No. R (87) 6 on foster families; No. R (94) 14 on coherent and integrated family policies; No. R (96) 5 on reconciling work and family life; No. R (97) 4 on securing and promoting the health of single parent families; No. R (98) 8 on children’s participation in family and social life; Rec(2005)5 on the rights of children living in residential institutions and Rec(2006)5 on the Council of Europe Action Plan to promote the rights and full participation of people with disabilities in society: improving the quality of life of people with disabilities in Europe 2006-2015; Bearing in mind the Revised Social Strategy for Social Cohesion for which families are the place where social cohesion is first experienced and learnt and that a social cohesion strategy, while fully respecting the autonomy of the private sphere and of civil society, must seek to be supportive of families; Recalling the Parliamentary Assembly’s Recommendations 751 (1975) on the position and responsibility of parents in the modern family and their support by society; 1074 (1988) on family policy; 1121 (1990) on the rights of children; Sole Alba Zollo 282 1443 (2000) on international adoption: respecting children’s rights; 1501 (2001) on parents’ and teachers’ responsibilities in children’s education; 1551 (2002) on building a 21st-century society with and for children: follow-up to the European strategy for children (Recommendation 1286 (1996)); 1639 (2003) on family mediation and equality of sexes; 1666 (2004) on a Europewide ban on corporal punishment of children; 1698 (2005) on the rights of children in institutions: follow-up to Recommendation 1601 (2003) of the Parliamentary Assembly; Stressing the importance of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which all the member states of the Council of Europe are Parties, and the basic principles of which should always underlie the rearing of children; Recalling the Third Summit of Heads of State and Government (Warsaw, Poland, May 2005) and the commitment made their to fully comply with the obligations of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, to effectively promote the rights of the child and to take specific action to eradicate all forms of violence against children, and the ensuing programme “Building a Europe for and with children”, officially launched in Monaco, on 4 and 5 April 2006; Referring to the Final Communiqué and Political Declaration of the European Ministers responsible for Family Affairs at their 28th session (Lisbon, Portugal, 16-17 May 2006), particularly: recognising that parenting, though linked to family intimacy, should be designated as a domain of public policy and all the necessary measures should be adopted for supporting parenting and creating the conditions necessary for positive parenting; recalling their commitment to promote and pursue a common European policy in the field of family affairs and the rights of the child within the framework of the Council of Europe; Recognising the child as a person with rights, including the right to be protected and to participate, to express her/ his views, to be heard and be heeded; Recalling that public authorities have a vital role to play in supporting families in general and parents in particular, which is expressed through three core elements of family policy: public transfers and taxation, measures to balance work and family life, childcare provision and other services; Considering that the family is a primary unit of society and that parenting plays a fundamental role in society and for its future; Conscious of the many changes and challenges facing families today which require parenthood to be given greater prominence and better support, con- Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 283 sidering that such support is essential for children, parents and society as a whole; Recognising that all levels of society have a role to play in supporting children, parents and families; Considering that public authorities in conjunction with the economic and social sectors and civil society can, in taking action in support of parenting, help strive for a healthier and more prosperous future for society, as well as an improvement in the quality of family life; Noting the need for a cross-sectoral and co-ordinated approach; Keen to promote positive parenting as an essential part of the support provided for parenting, and as a means of ensuring respect for and implementation of children’s rights, Recommends that the governments of member states: acknowledge the essential nature of families and of the parental role and create the necessary conditions for positive parenting in the best interests of the child; take all appropriate legislative, administrative, financial and other measures adhering to the principles set out in the appendix to this recommendation. Appendix to the Recommendation Rec(2006)19 1. Definitions For the purpose of this recommendation, the term: “Parents”: refers to persons with parental authority or responsibility; “Parenting”: refers to all the roles falling to parents in order to care for and bring up children. Parenting is centred on parent-children interaction and entails rights and duties for the child’s development and self-fulfilment; “Positive parenting”: refers to parental behaviour based on the best interests of the child that is nurturing, empowering, non-violent and provides recognition and guidance which involves setting of boundaries to enable the full development of the child. Sole Alba Zollo 284 2. Fundamental principles of policies and measures Policies and measures in the field of support for parenting should: i. adopt a rights-based approach: this means treating children and parents as holders of rights and obligations; ii. be based on a voluntary choice by the individuals concerned, except when public authorities have to intervene to protect the child; iii. acknowledge that parents have the prime responsibility for their child, subject to the child’s best interests; iv. consider parents and children as partners sharing, as appropriate, the setting up and implementation of the measures relating to them; v. be based on the equal involvement of parents and respect for their complementarity; vi. guarantee equal opportunities for children irrespective of their gender, status, abilities or family situation; vii. take into account the importance of a sufficient standard of living to engage in positive parenting; viii. be based on a clearly expressed concept of positive parenting; ix. address parents and key players having childcare, health and educational and social responsibilities towards the child and who should also respect the principles of positive parenting; x. recognise the diverse types of parenting and parental situations through adopting a pluralistic approach; xi. adopt a positive approach to parents’ potential, particularly through placing priority on incentives; xii be long-term in order to guarantee stability and continuity of policy; xiii ensure that the number of common rules of principle at national or federal level are kept to a minimum to promote equal standards at local level and that there is a local network of services providing parenting support measures; xiv. ensure inter-ministerial co-operation, encouraging and coordinating the action(s) in this field of the different ministries, departments and agencies concerned in order to implement policy that is coherent and comprehensive; Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 285 xv. be co-ordinated at international level, through facilitating exchanges of knowledge, experience and good practice in the application of the guidelines on positive parenting. 3. Objectives Governments should organise their policies and programmes on positive parenting with a view to achieving the following three types of objectives: i. the creation of the conditions for positive parenting, by ensuring that all those rearing children have access to an appropriate level and diversity of resources (material, psychological, social and cultural) and that broad social attitudes and patterns of prevailing life are receptive to the needs of families with children and also those of parents; ii. the removal of barriers to positive parenting, whatever their origin. Employment policy, in particular, should allow a better reconciliation of family and working life; iii. the promotion of positive parenting by developing awareness of it and taking all the necessary measures to make it a reality. In order to have efficient policies to support parenting, public authorities should promote initiatives aiming to make people aware of the value and importance of positive parenting. Governments should take a pro-active approach to promoting awareness of parenting issues and to normalising participation in parenting programmes. Information should present different images of parenting in order to avoid stigmatising differences. The goal of policy and measures should be the harmonious development (in all its dimensions) and proper treatment of children, with due regard for their fundamental rights and dignity. As a priority, measures should be taken to eliminate all child neglect and abuse and physical or psychological violence (including humiliation, degrading treatment and corporal punishment). It is also essential to implement and further develop a suitable policy to bring about a change in social attitudes and patterns of life in order to accommodate more effectively the needs of children, parents and families and in particular to promote family-friendly working environments and services. 4. Incorporating children’s rights in public policies Public policies on support for parenting should incorporate childhood-related issues, acknowledging the needs and interests of all children and paying attention to their varying needs depending on their age, capacity, and level of maturity. For this purpose, the principles enshrined in the United Nations Con- Sole Alba Zollo 286 vention on the Rights of the Child should be respected by all, regardless of context, and particularly guide the activities of all bodies working in the field, both public and private, especially for the following rights and general principles: i. the right to non-discrimination; ii. the best interests of the child should be of primary consideration; iii. the right to life and development; i . the right to participation, to express her/ his views, to be heard and be heeded, to receive information and to join associations and other organisations; . the right to protection and care. For this purpose, it is important for the child to grow up in a favourable family environment and in a positive atmosphere. 5. Considering parents’ responsibilities, rights and obligations In the best interests of the child, the rights of parents, such as entitlement to appropriate support from public authorities in fulfilling their parental functions, must also be given prominence. The exercise by parents of equal and shared responsibility for their children makes a major contribution to the harmonious development of the child’s personality. Particular attention should be paid to the important role of fathers in the care and rearing of their children, taking into account in particular the principle of gender equality, the impact on families of the reconciliation of work and family life and family breakdown, which can often result in fathers living apart from their children. 6. Core components of policies and measures Policies to promote and encourage positive parenting will work best if they are based on consultation and dialogue with parents and on their voluntary involvement and participation, in order to reach a real partnership. In addition to the essential elements at point 4 and 5 of this recommendation, core components include the following: 6.1. Supporting parents i. alongside the measures proposed by public authorities to afford and improve support for parents, support from other agencies (such as municipalities, social security and associations) should also be acknowledged and encouraged; v v Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 287 ii. policies should be geared to engendering support for parenting at the following three levels: - informal: creating and strengthening existing social bonds and encouraging new links between parents and their family, neighbours and friends; - semi-formal: empowering parents’ and children’s associations and NGOs and activating a range of self-help and other community-based groups and services; - formal: facilitating access to public services. 6.2. Promoting education in children’s rights and positive parenting i. parents should be encouraged to become more aware of the nature of their role (and how it is changing), children’s rights, the responsibilities and obligations that derive from these and their own rights; ii. governments should also arrange for comprehensive guidelines and specific programmes to assist them in challenging life situations, conflict resolution, anger management through non-violent approaches and mediation techniques; iii. prevention programmes regarding the different forms of ill-treatment of children should be promoted and parents made aware of this serious problem and of its consequences on the child’s development; iv. children should also be taught about their rights and duties in order to make them aware of the concept of positive parenting and what this means for them. 6.3. Reconciling family and working life i. public authorities should create the necessary conditions - and employers should be encouraged - to implement a better reconciliation of family and working life through legal and other provisions (such as flexible working arrangements, adjustment of working and school hours, leave policies, various types of good quality childcare services, provisions for looking after children with disabilities as well as sick children, etc.); ii. the social partners should be encouraged to negotiate and develop tailor-made policies adapted to the specific needs of each company and of their employees; Sole Alba Zollo 288 iii. good practices make it clear to employers that a comprehensive work/ life balance policy creates a win-win situation within companies. 6.4. Policies at local level The action taken at local level is particularly important in providing a response tailored more closely to the needs and characteristics of the populations concerned. Co-operation and co-ordination at national or federal and local levels and between these levels are necessary in order to offer families better service and optimise available resources and the use made of them. Administrative procedures should allow for an appropriate level of flexibility in service provision, consistent with ensuring equitable treatment of all families. 7. Targeting of policies and measures Particular attention should be paid to difficult social and economic circumstances and to crises within families, which require more specific support. It is also essential to supplement general policies with a more targeted approach. Parenting in certain situations and at certain periods in the life cycle is by its nature more challenging. Despite the variations from country to country, the needs of the following groups should be especially attended to: i. first-time parents; ii. teenage parents; iii. families with particular needs; iv. families in difficult socio-economic circumstances. In the case of separated parents, support policies should be aimed in particular at maintaining links between children and both their parents, unless this is contrary to the child’s best interests. Access to professional counselling should be provided and attention should be paid to cases where the parents have different cultural backgrounds or are of different nationalities. Public authorities should stimulate and facilitate the creation of networks of mutual assistance associations between families and make available places where parents could meet to discuss - with professionals, if necessary - on issues relating to parenting, and provide parents with adequate support services like free help lines and counselling services. 8. Parenting in situations of social exclusion Parenting in situations of social exclusion or at risk of social exclusion can be particularly difficult and special attention should be paid to the needs of children and families in this situation, with reference in particular to the following: Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 289 i. providing long-term support, as appropriate, to help them achieve the same results as other children and families; this support should include reaching out to them in their homes or in the places they frequent, and take into consideration the possible fear of parents in a situation of social exclusion towards social services, particularly of having their children taken away; ii. giving sufficient means to support parents and to allow them to acquire the necessary competence to fulfil their responsibilities towards their children; iii. guaranteeing access to social rights (including the right to adequate income, health, education, housing and employment) and the same quality targeted services as those enjoyed by other families; iv. ensuring that families and children suffering exclusion are considered in their social context (including the extended family, the community and their relational networks) and enjoy the same quality services, including local ones, as those enjoyed by other families, in accordance with their needs; v. building a trustworthy relationship with the families and enabling parents to regain control of their own lives; vi. organising training for professionals and parents together in order to achieve better mutual knowledge and understanding, to build a common project in the best interests of the child and enabling professionals to learn about what these families are experiencing and to better know their family project, with a view to focusing their practice on it; vii. ensuring personal and collective support for professionals in order to raise their level of competence in working with people in very difficult situations and take the necessary steps to create new approaches; viii. taking ad hoc measures to avoid the risk of marginalisation of migrant families; ix. avoiding measures and administrative practice that stigmatise children and parents by treating them differently because their families are less well-off than others; x. introducing measures to prevent dropout from school as an efficient means to counteract family distress. Sole Alba Zollo 290 9. Qualitative guidelines for professionals In order for the above rights and principles to be applied, benchmarks and standards must be set. Guidelines on the focus of their services - such as the Council of Europe guidelines on positive parenting - should be given to professionals and practitioners (including those not directly involved with children but whose work could have an impact on their rights), with particular emphasis on: i. the principle of equity and accessibility, which should underlie all action taken; ii. the principle of becoming partners with and empowering parents. Partnership presupposes recognition of parents’ own experience and their knowledge of their own children; iii. application of the concept of partnership to co-operation and interdisciplinary co-ordination between agencies, specifying the particular areas of activity of each department, providing for a sharing of facilities and working in a cross-curricular network; iv. ensuring that the application of comprehensive services is conceived in terms of support and assistance, encouraging family initiative without creating excessive dependency. Accordingly, strengths and resources of families should be supported. This also means that professionals should act as support for parents, in ways that are non-judgmental and non-stigmatising; v. building up parents’ self-confidence, enhancing their competencies and potential and motivating parents to be informed and trained; vi. enabling children to communicate their feelings and needs, in particular very young children and children with communication impairments; vii. the importance of service provision and professional practices by ensuring that the emphasis is placed on: - thorough training of the professionals concerned; - ongoing evaluation, both external and internal (selfevaluation); - continuity of action; - responses based on the understanding of the child and families in their context; Raising awareness on children’s rights through popularization 291 viii. devising methods to identify risk factors regarding failure to provide parental care to be disseminated among social services, health-care professionals, those dealing with young people, teachers and childcare staff to train them in identifying families with problems in this respect and offer support. A better co-ordination among the services working to support a family should constantly be sought; ix. co-ordinating the implementation of measures to separate children from their parents, when this is necessary, with work with the family of origin (particularly in partnership with the parents) in order to enable them to prepare or better prepare for and accept this step as a means of ensuring the best interests of the child. The aim of any such measure should be the return, if possible, of the child in the family environment. 10. School and childcare environment An integrated approach to the provision of assistance with schooling and support for parenting should be encouraged (especially where children lack stable roots or a permanent home - for example children with a Roma or Gypsy background, children of migrants); childcare and school integration as well as dialogue between these service providers and parents should be encouraged, with special attention to families in difficult situations and to those with particular needs. 11. Key messages for parents and all those having responsibilities for children and their rearing Key messages on positive parenting should be issued to all parents and persons providing care and involved in the rearing of a child on a daily basis (such as childminders or school staff). These messages should make clear how the child is to be respected as a person and how his/ her participation should be promoted, and that parents have rights as well as responsibilities. Key messages should be drawn up on the basis of consultation with all the stakeholders involved, especially parents, service providers and children, and be monitored to ensure that they are effective and are being adhered to. 12. International co-operation Measures should be put in place to improve international co-operation and exchange of best practice in relation to parenting. Brochure Policy tto support positive pparenting Figure 7 Europäische Studien zur Textlinguistik herausgegeben von Kirsten Adamzik, Martine Dalmas, Jan Engberg, Wolf-Dieter Krause und Arne Ziegler Bisher sind erschienen: Band 1 Kirsten Adamzik/ Wolf-Dieter Krause (Hrsg.) Text-Arbeiten Textsorten im fremd- und muttersprachlichen Unterricht an Schule und Hochschule Seiten Band 2 Maximilian Scherner, Arne Ziegler Angewandte Textlinguistik Perspektiven für den Deutsch- und Fremdsprachenunterricht Georg Weidacher Fiktionale Texte - Fiktive Welten Fiktionalität aus textlinguistischer Sicht Band 4 Sabine Schmölzer-Eibinger/ Georg Weidacher Textkompetenz Eine Schlüsselkompetenz und ihre Sabine Schmölzer-Eibinger Lernen in der Zweitsprache Förderung von Textkompetenz in mehrsprachigen Klassen Marianne Grove Ditlevsen/ Peter Kastberg/ Christiane Pankow (Hrsg.) Sind Gebrauchsanleitungen zu gebrauchen? Linguistische und kommunikativ-pragmatische Studien zu skandinavischen Katja Kessel Die Kunst des Smalltalks Sprachwissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zu Kommunikationsratgebern Peter Klotz/ Paul R. Portmann-Tselikas/ Georg Weidacher (Hrsg.) Kontexte und Texte Soziokulturelle Konstellationen literalen Handelns Europäische Studien zur Textlinguistik 14 The book is an edited volume of carefully selected articles by eminent scholars focusing on the specialist knowledge transmission through genre variation, particularly on the issues of standardization and hybridity. The main focus was to analyse discursive popularization in the contexts and domains of natural sciences, law, and commerce, viewed in a diachronic perspective. The scholars involved have concentrated their studies on the creative transformation, hybridization, and even bending of genres used to popularise scientific, legal and commercial discourse for different communicative purposes and audiences, thus extending the conventional genre boundaries to disseminate specialized knowledge. The proliferation of specialized knowledge has indeed created a growing need to convey expert knowledge to a variety of addressees, with different levels of shared understanding and expertise. Such disciplinary knowledge can only be conveyed through various subtle manipulations of generic conventions keeping in mind the aims, the users, the media, the social contexts, and the domain with which specific knowledge is associated.