Irena Vassileva

While marking importance and relevance in academic discourse has been a widely researched topic, markers of lesser significance have so far been understudied. The article therefore focuses on some of the discoursal means of expressing lesser importance in conference presentations. The corpus of the study comprises recordings of 20 presentations in English at international linguistics conferences by speakers of various cultural and linguistic backgrounds. The methodology follows Deroey and Taverniers’s (2012) study of lecture discourse, whereby depending on the way lesser importance is expressed, the markers are grouped under five categories. Their methodology is checked against the data provided by the transcriptions of the conference recordings to ascertain the extent to which it is applicable to other spoken academic genres. The ultimate objective is to provide steppingstones for interpreting information and distinguishing between what is important and relevant and less so in conf...

This study describes the specific linguistic and sociolinguistic features of code-switching that are detected in the speech of first generation Bulgarian immigrants to Canada. The aim is to reveal the extent to which a change in the cultural, social, and economic environment exerts impact on the language behaviour of immigrants and, thus, brings about changes of attitude toward the native language and the degree to which it is used. It also discusses the importance and role of the methodological ways and means of data collection and touches upon several theoretical issues related to the necessity of adopting a more suitable approach to multilingualism in modern globalized societies as well as to problems associated with the consequences of having only monolingual or bilingual nation state language policies.

The paper deals with the strategies of speaker-audience interaction in conference language and their linguistic realization. The investigation draws on corpora of recorded paper presentations in English and German delivered by native speakers of the two languages, as well as presentations of Germans in English. A comparison is also made with written scientific language (published articles) in order to establish the differences between the two modes of communication in view of the linguistic features under consideration. Moreover, an attempt is made to look at the problems non-native speakers may encounter in the use of English as an international language of academic communication.

This contribution probes into the attitudes towards plagiarism in academia as it details the results of a questionnaire study within the larger framework of a joint Bulgarian-German research project on plagiarism in academia. The questionnaire focused on investigating the scope of the notion of plagiarism as Bulgarian academics understand it and second, looking into the availability of a system of support to prevent transgressors and/or sanctions for transgressing academics across Bulgarian universities. The results of the questionnaire suggest that while there appears to be a consensus among Bulgarian academics about the different facets that make up the notion of plagiarism, the reported attitudes towards plagiarism practices vary greatly, reflecting a non-uniform perception of what constitutes an offense. It also shows a deep dissatisfaction with existing anti-plagiarism regulatory systems in Bulgarian scientific institutions. Note: This study was financed by the Alexander von Hu...

The paper deals with the strategies of speaker-audience interaction in conference language and their linguistic realization. The investigation draws on corpora of recorded paper presentations in English and German delivered by native speakers of the two languages, ...

Argumentative strategies in conference discussions sessions* Irena Vassileva South-West University, Blagoevgrad The paper focuses on the ways and means of realisation of conference discussion sessions interaction in terms of argumentation strategies used by discussants, ...

... Before proceeding with the explica-tion of its characteristic features, we must particularly emphasize that academic communication is primarily a written form; on the one hand, there is no definite addressee for the published texts, and on the other, the distance between the ...

One of the conspicuous differences infacademic discourse presentation is the preference for use of the first person singular ‘I’ perspective in some languages versus the first person plural ‘we’ perspective in others. This distinction is due not so much to purely linguistic reasons as to cultural ones. The purpose of this paper is to present some data concerning the employment of the two perspectives in English, German, French, Russian and Bulgarian research articles in linguistics and to suggest some explanations, as well as to point to certain cross-cultural misunderstandings which may result from the differences established here. An attempt is also made to investigate certain cross-linguistic and cross-cultural influences among the five languages. The analysis is based on 5 corpora consisting of 300 pages for each language.