Trees and Fields and Negative Polarity

Mental space theory is a cognitive framework that explains the interpretation of linguistic expressions: it explains how interlocutors get from input to output. Whereas in traditional semantics words are taken to possess a static, prefabricated meaning, cognitive frameworks take meaning to be the result of an interpretive process. This article explains how mental space theory can be used in an analysis of mood in embedded clauses in Spanish. It starts from the assumption that the meaning of mood is constructed by interlocutors in an interpretive process on the basis of information from the modal morphemes combined with information from the linguistic as well as the extra-linguistic context. The interpretive process is represented as a sequence of mental spaces which are linked and structured on the basis of information from language and context. Laura Martínez Escudero* Quality in WIPO Domain Name Arbitration Decisions Abstract Over the last decades, linguists have drawn special considerations to define specialized discourse. Basically, the complexity of describing specialized discourse lies in its multi-dimensional nature. The main purpose of this paper is to characterize specialized discourse in WIPO Domain Name Arbitration as the result of social and institutional conditionings. First, the study focuses on characterizing text-external factors associated with this highly-specialized professional practice. More in particular, the study focuses on the analysis of ‘Quality’ in WIPO Domain Name Arbitration decisions. Second, the study found useful to define the boundaries of ‘specialized discourse’ Third, the study limited the focus of attention on analyzing ‘Quality’ in relation to ‘Objectivity’ and ‘Neutrality’ as factors associated with specialized discourse and also to ‘Impartiality’ and ‘Independence’ as conditionings specifically related to WIPO domain name arbitration professional practice. Following Bhatia (Bhatia 2004) this study conceptualizes specialized discourse as a concept highly dependent on social and institutional conditions.


Peter Harder If Your Language Was a Car… The Object(s) of Linguistic Research, or: Towards a Shared Geography of Linguistics Abstract
The article suggests that there are underexplored possibilities for fruitful communication between formal and functionalist linguistics. A key issue is the question of exactly what each approach is aiming to capture about language. This is especially relevant for understanding the status of claims about autonomy. The role of distributional regularities and their precise relations with semantic motivation is argued to be a shared problem that could fruitfully be addressed from both sides of the divide -and the role of niche construction as a dimension of evolutionary theory is put forward as providing a new take on the innateness debate. Torben Thrane's work is discussed as an illustration example.

Sten Vikner Trees and Fields and Negative Polarity Abstract
The paper takes as its point of departure a comparison between two kinds of approaches to clause structure, namely tree analyses like the generative analysis and field analyses like the saetningsskema analysis of Danish of Diderichsen (1946) and many others (or like the topologische Modell analysis of German of Drach 1937 and many others). The particular difference between the two kinds of analyses which I explore in this paper concerns c-command, which is a relationship between different constituents in a clause. I shall try to show how useful and indispensable c-command is when it comes to accounting for negative polarity items in English, Danish and German, both the more straightforward aspects and the more complex ones, e.g. the so-called NPI-verbs as well as the interaction between NPI-elements and because-clauses.

Helle Dam-Jensen The Meaning of Mood -Embedded Clauses in Spanish as a Case in Point Abstract
Mental space theory is a cognitive framework that explains the interpretation of linguistic expressions: it explains how interlocutors get from input to output. Whereas in traditional semantics words are taken to possess a static, prefabricated meaning, cognitive frameworks take meaning to be the result of an interpretive process. This article explains how mental space theory can be used in an analysis of mood in embedded clauses in Spanish. It starts from the assumption that the meaning of mood is constructed by interlocutors in an interpretive process on the basis of information from the modal morphemes combined with information from the linguistic as well as the extra-linguistic context. The interpretive process is represented as a sequence of mental spaces which are linked and structured on the basis of information from language and context.

Laura Martínez Escudero* Quality in WIPO Domain Name Arbitration Decisions Abstract
Over the last decades, linguists have drawn special considerations to define specialized discourse. Basically, the complexity of describing specialized discourse lies in its multi-dimensional nature. The main purpose of this paper is to characterize specialized discourse in WIPO Domain Name Arbitration as the result of social and institutional conditionings. First, the study focuses on characterizing text-external factors associated with this highly-specialized professional practice. More in particular, the study focuses on the analysis of 'Quality' in WIPO Domain Name Arbitration decisions. Second, the study found useful to define the boundaries of 'specialized discourse' Third, the study limited the focus of attention on analyzing 'Quality' in relation to 'Objectivity' and 'Neutrality' as factors associated with specialized discourse and also to 'Impartiality' and 'Independence' as conditionings specifically related to WIPO domain name arbitration professional practice. Following Bhatia (Bhatia 2004) this study conceptualizes specialized discourse as a concept highly dependent on social and institutional conditions.

Dermot Heaney* "Steve, you must feel pig sick!": Streamed Video Interactions between Premier League Managers and Sports Journalists as Semi-scripted Performances Abstract
The starting point of this paper is the phenomenon of so-called MediaSport, namely the pervasive and multi-faceted mediation of sports events that extends the reach and hold of the sports industry on communities of sports consumers. The specific aspect of MediaSport considered here is the streamed post-match interview with Premier League team managers, a stabilized media interaction that reflects the importance of media duties as part of the manager's corporate brief. Critical attention to managers seems mainly confined to sociological studies of the politics of celebrity, while linguists seemingly have little to say about this kind of discourse. The data selected for analysis are two interviews following defeat. The choice falls on this scenario because it is expected it will entail a greater onus on managers to display media interaction expertise. Using a theoretical framework that draws on Goffman's concepts of performance, participation framework, and face, the discourse analysis in this paper attempts to provide an account of the linguistic resources managers draw on in these mediated interactions. The analysis of turn-taking, topic control, deixis and modality reveals similarities in the sample interviews that suggest these encounters are actually semi-scripted collaborative performances that allow both interactants to preserve their face as competent professionals, while also affording the manager ample opportunity to interact with the major imagined recipient, namely, the online fan base.