Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

Discourse and Text Linguistics Commons™

Open Access. Powered by Scholars. Published by Universities.®

University of Nebraska - Lincoln

Articles 1 - 6 of 6

Full-Text Articles in Discourse and Text Linguistics

Rhetorics Of Encounter: Toward A Biocentric Theory Of Discourse, Matthew D. Whitaker Aug 2025

Rhetorics Of Encounter: Toward A Biocentric Theory Of Discourse, Matthew D. Whitaker

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Encounters with more-than-human identities are transformative moments that stand to affect dispositional and bodily change in individuals. From close brushes with wild animals in National Parks to everyday interactions with local ecologies, encounters invite us to feel and think differently about the nature of our realities. In Rhetorics of Encounter: Toward a Biocentric Theory of Discourse, I draw from interdisciplinary perspectives to disrupt the idea of rhetoric as a representational medium, arguing that rhetoric occurs not just through textual exchanges of words and symbols, but through embodied moments of contact with other responsive beings. Invoking George Kennedy’s theory …

Go to article

Discourses That Undermine Union Movements: A Multimodal Analysis Of Union-Busting Videos, Theresa A. Catalano, Julia Schleck Jan 2024

Discourses That Undermine Union Movements: A Multimodal Analysis Of Union-Busting Videos, Theresa A. Catalano, Julia Schleck

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Labor unions in the United States have experienced decades of decline, but recent years have seen a rebirth of union campaigns and successes. Because unions are once again becoming a threat to large companies, it is reasonable to assume that efforts to discourage organizing efforts will increase and become even more robust in the near future. Although traditionally, companies have worked to suspend union organizing through captive audience meetings in which unions were discussed via verbal or written modes, more recent means of reaching workers with anti-union messages incorporate a variety of communication strategies to get the message across. As …

Go to article

Apologies For Cross-Posting: Composing Disciplinary Affects And Conflicts On The Wpa Listserv, Zachary Beare Mar 2017

Apologies For Cross-Posting: Composing Disciplinary Affects And Conflicts On The Wpa Listserv, Zachary Beare

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Drawing on theories of counterpublics, online communication, and affect, this dissertation argues that the Writing Program Administrators Listserv (WPA-L) functions as an important site of disciplinary knowledge-making and theory-building for the field of Composition and Rhetoric. The dissertation examines the WPA-L as a discursive space in which members of the discipline build community, debate pressing issues, and strategize how best to advocate for their individual and collective interests. At the same time that these qualities reveal how the listserv functions as counterpublic space for the discipline at large, the dissertation argues that sub-disciplinary counterpublics made up of individuals marginalized within …

Go to article

The Role Of Language In The Theory Of Communication Of Nicolas Malebranche, Thomas M. Carr Jr. Jan 1981

The Role Of Language In The Theory Of Communication Of Nicolas Malebranche, Thomas M. Carr Jr.

French Language and Literature Papers

Nicolas Malebranche (1638–1715) is perhaps the most important French philosopher between Descartes and the Revolution of 1789. His synthesis of Cartesian elements and Augustinianism in the last quarter of the seventeenth century had great influence on several generations of thinkers before the rationalism he represented was replaced by the new Lockian sensualism. There has been a European revival of interest in Malebranche in the last twenty years, centering around the first critical edition of his complete works, a task headed by the Belgian historian of philosophy André Robinet, and there are signs that American interest is growing as well with …

Go to article

The Presuppositions Of Name-Calling In English, Robert S. Haller Jan 1973

The Presuppositions Of Name-Calling In English, Robert S. Haller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

I have offered evidence that name-calling is a linguistic act which correlates the assumption of a status-relation between speaker and addressee with the use of terms marked (+abusive). To call someone a bastard, for.this reason, is not understood as the attempt to categorize him according to some term whose meaning, in the ordinary sense, is a list of lexical features. Rather it is the attempt to categorize him as without status in relation to the speaker himself, in defiance of his expectations, and because he has himself deserved it by himself invoking such a right over the speaker. This understanding …

Go to article

Semantic Constituents Of Constructions Taking That-Clauses, Robert S. Haller Jan 1971

Semantic Constituents Of Constructions Taking That-Clauses, Robert S. Haller

Department of English: Faculty Publications

What this paper has tried to do is to present some data which would have to be accounted for in an adequate semantic theory, and to suggest some of the specific elements of such a theory. A semantic theory must presuppose the existence of modal operators on every utterance, and would explain the meaning of any discourse as the relation among its medals. Logical theory has always done this, in taking every proposition of an argument as an element of the modal relations making up the argument. A semantic theory would have to specify the relations among medals which would …

Go to article