Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.132262
Alessandra Rossetti, L. Van Waes
With more and more people interested in how sustainable and socially responsible companies are, the comprehensibility of content on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become paramount. Producing easy-to-read business content – either by writing it from scratch or revising it – is a cognitively demanding undertaking, especially for second-language non-professional writers. Both formal training and sustained practice can help writers build expertise and, in turn, be considerate of their intended audience. In particular, research on the impact of training has usually yielded positive results when examining the texts produced following specific instruction. However, the extent to which training has a positive effect on the process of writing and revision is still under-researched, especially in second language. To address this gap, we report on an experimental study that examines the impact of reader-oriented training on the cognitive effort experienced by 47 second-language university students when revising CSR content. We adopted a pre-test post-test design, and we used keystroke logging and retrospective interviews to collect data on students' pausing behaviour, use of online sources, and strategies to approach the revision task. Our training seemed to reduce the cognitive effort linked with lexical choices. Furthermore, it provided some students with procedural knowledge on how to approach the revision task in a more efficient way. We also observed a general tendency to rewrite (rather than revise) CSR content despite the higher cognitive effort required by rewriting. We discuss implications for training, limitations, and future research avenues.
{"title":"Revision of Business Content on Corporate Social Responsibility","authors":"Alessandra Rossetti, L. Van Waes","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.132262","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.132262","url":null,"abstract":"With more and more people interested in how sustainable and socially responsible companies are, the comprehensibility of content on corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become paramount. Producing easy-to-read business content – either by writing it from scratch or revising it – is a cognitively demanding undertaking, especially for second-language non-professional writers. Both formal training and sustained practice can help writers build expertise and, in turn, be considerate of their intended audience. In particular, research on the impact of training has usually yielded positive results when examining the texts produced following specific instruction. However, the extent to which training has a positive effect on the process of writing and revision is still under-researched, especially in second language. To address this gap, we report on an experimental study that examines the impact of reader-oriented training on the cognitive effort experienced by 47 second-language university students when revising CSR content. We adopted a pre-test post-test design, and we used keystroke logging and retrospective interviews to collect data on students' pausing behaviour, use of online sources, and strategies to approach the revision task. Our training seemed to reduce the cognitive effort linked with lexical choices. Furthermore, it provided some students with procedural knowledge on how to approach the revision task in a more efficient way. We also observed a general tendency to rewrite (rather than revise) CSR content despite the higher cognitive effort required by rewriting. We discuss implications for training, limitations, and future research avenues.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"26 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86106666","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128116
D. Suci, Y. Basthomi, B. Cahyono, M. Anugerahwati, Faradila Masuara, Merliyani Putri Anggraini
This study investigates how the students perceive the use of Telegram on their reading comprehension. For this purpose, 104 students in an Indonesian vocational school who are from various majors are selected to fulfil an online questionnaire about Telegram acceptance for learning English. Then, its result is compared to the score of students’ reading comprehension. For its validity of reading comprehension achievement, this study employs construct validity of the reading text that the English teacher gives. Accordingly, this study reveals a weak correlation between how the students perceive the use of Telegram and the students’ reading comprehension. It is signified by the correlation between the two variables of interest .364 which is significant at the .000 level. It indicates that the student’s perception and the reading comprehension for this set of data are significant but in a weak relationship. This may be caused by the reading strategy, reading text that is not exactly valid and Telegram function which comprises merit and demerit.
{"title":"Reading English Texts through Telegram App: Indonesian Vocational Students’ Perceptions","authors":"D. Suci, Y. Basthomi, B. Cahyono, M. Anugerahwati, Faradila Masuara, Merliyani Putri Anggraini","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128116","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128116","url":null,"abstract":"This study investigates how the students perceive the use of Telegram on their reading comprehension. For this purpose, 104 students in an Indonesian vocational school who are from various majors are selected to fulfil an online questionnaire about Telegram acceptance for learning English. Then, its result is compared to the score of students’ reading comprehension. For its validity of reading comprehension achievement, this study employs construct validity of the reading text that the English teacher gives. Accordingly, this study reveals a weak correlation between how the students perceive the use of Telegram and the students’ reading comprehension. It is signified by the correlation between the two variables of interest .364 which is significant at the .000 level. It indicates that the student’s perception and the reading comprehension for this set of data are significant but in a weak relationship. This may be caused by the reading strategy, reading text that is not exactly valid and Telegram function which comprises merit and demerit.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"30 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75764352","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.129703
A. Bamford
A current trend in multinational corporations (MNCs) is a strong focus on diversity management in order to attract and retain talent. The present study investigates the linguistic manifestation and justification of a very recent company policy intended to facilitate this trend, viz., global paternity leave. The study represents an attempt at contributing to the linguistic turn in organisational studies. As a theoretical point of departure, strategic communication and the socio-political and business context for parental leave are discussed. Tools from systemic functional linguistics are then applied as methods to investigate the communication strategies employed when introducing the new family leave policy in four MNCs headquartered in the UK and Norway, respectively. The material consists of a set of texts on global paternity leave produced by the four companies. The analysis identifies similarities as well as differences between the British and Norwegian companies in how the new global leave policy is presented. The findings demonstrate a tension between focussing on gender equality and on inclusion in the justification of the new measure intended to support the MNCs’ diversity management efforts. The study thus shows how language performs ideological work within corporate communication.
{"title":"Standardising Fatherhood through Discourse","authors":"A. Bamford","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.129703","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.129703","url":null,"abstract":"A current trend in multinational corporations (MNCs) is a strong focus on diversity management in order to attract and retain talent. The present study investigates the linguistic manifestation and justification of a very recent company policy intended to facilitate this trend, viz., global paternity leave. The study represents an attempt at contributing to the linguistic turn in organisational studies. As a theoretical point of departure, strategic communication and the socio-political and business context for parental leave are discussed. Tools from systemic functional linguistics are then applied as methods to investigate the communication strategies employed when introducing the new family leave policy in four MNCs headquartered in the UK and Norway, respectively. The material consists of a set of texts on global paternity leave produced by the four companies. The analysis identifies similarities as well as differences between the British and Norwegian companies in how the new global leave policy is presented. The findings demonstrate a tension between focussing on gender equality and on inclusion in the justification of the new measure intended to support the MNCs’ diversity management efforts. The study thus shows how language performs ideological work within corporate communication.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"38 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"77565881","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128664
Aurélien Riondel
While revision procedures have been studied in some detail in the literature on revision, the question of the order of reading during bilingual revision has hardly been investigated. This article explores this issue by analysing in-depth interviews conducted in Switzerland with translators in different professional contexts. It discusses the practices described in the interviews and analyses the reasons given by the participants for choosing their method. It shows that both orders of reading are well represented in the dataset: 10 participants read the source first during the bilingual check, 9 read the target first, and only 3 alternate between both orders. No pattern was found according to sector activity or languages, but trends emerge at the level of translation departments. The justifications provided by translators appear very similar: all participants who read the source first stated they seek to better spot discrepancies in meaning, whereas participants who read the target first indicated they want to avoid interferences between the languages or better appreciate the readability or correctness of the target language.
{"title":"Source First or Target First? Insight into the Order of Reading in Revision Using In-depth Interviews","authors":"Aurélien Riondel","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128664","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128664","url":null,"abstract":"While revision procedures have been studied in some detail in the literature on revision, the question of the order of reading during bilingual revision has hardly been investigated. This article explores this issue by analysing in-depth interviews conducted in Switzerland with translators in different professional contexts. It discusses the practices described in the interviews and analyses the reasons given by the participants for choosing their method. It shows that both orders of reading are well represented in the dataset: 10 participants read the source first during the bilingual check, 9 read the target first, and only 3 alternate between both orders. No pattern was found according to sector activity or languages, but trends emerge at the level of translation departments. The justifications provided by translators appear very similar: all participants who read the source first stated they seek to better spot discrepancies in meaning, whereas participants who read the target first indicated they want to avoid interferences between the languages or better appreciate the readability or correctness of the target language.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"6 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"86451414","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.132644
Pedro A. Fuertes Olivera
{"title":"Comunicación especializada y divulgación en la red. Aproximaciones basadas en Corpus","authors":"Pedro A. Fuertes Olivera","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.132644","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.132644","url":null,"abstract":"","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"91089808","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128849
Anne Marie Hulgaard
The “hyggelige” Danes and the arrogant Germans – Communicative Differences as a Consequence of National Stereotypes? The aim of this article is to discuss why German students code switch between German and Danish in a more appropriate way than their Danish fellow students do. The data consist of approximately 230 emails written by 40 German and Danish students enrolled in the Cross-Border Study Programme at the University of Southern Denmark and Europa-Universität Flensburg. A reason for this difference in ability to switch code can be explained by the students’ stereotypes about their own group as auto stereotypes and about the others as hetero stereotypes. In general, Danish auto stereotypes are very positive contrary to the negative hetero stereotypes of the Germans. Because of this, the Danish students seem to think that it is acceptable to use Danish communication structures even though they know that the chosen formulation will not be seen as appropriate German by their German professors.
{"title":"Die \"hyggeligen\" Dänen und die arroganten Deutschen","authors":"Anne Marie Hulgaard","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128849","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.128849","url":null,"abstract":"The “hyggelige” Danes and the arrogant Germans – Communicative Differences as a Consequence of National Stereotypes? \u0000The aim of this article is to discuss why German students code switch between German and Danish in a more appropriate way than their Danish fellow students do. The data consist of approximately 230 emails written by 40 German and Danish students enrolled in the Cross-Border Study Programme at the University of Southern Denmark and Europa-Universität Flensburg. A reason for this difference in ability to switch code can be explained by the students’ stereotypes about their own group as auto stereotypes and about the others as hetero stereotypes. In general, Danish auto stereotypes are very positive contrary to the negative hetero stereotypes of the Germans. Because of this, the Danish students seem to think that it is acceptable to use Danish communication structures even though they know that the chosen formulation will not be seen as appropriate German by their German professors.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"64 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74595776","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-12-12DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.127015
G. Ghazaryan, Steven Donatelle
The article is devoted to the use of technology in memorial museums, particularly in those related to genocide. The authors use a multidisciplinary theoretical framework using a diverse toolkit from Semiotics, Communication Studies, and Philosophy to explain the benefits and dangers of implementing technology in a memorial museum. The framework makes particular use of Peirce’s idea of unlimited semiosis, Eco’s considerations about the multiplicity of meanings and the “open text”, the existence of not one but two narratives in museums—especially in memorial museums—and Heidegger’s writings on technology especially enframing and revealing which are invoked in order to explain the interplay between technology and memory. Being based in Yerevan, Armenia, the authors formulate their ideas with the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute (AGMI) in mind. This results in practical recommendations of how technology could be implemented in modern-day memorial museums, and identifies the benefits and dangers that must be kept in mind when doing so. The specific subject matter of the AGMI plays a part in how this discourse evolves and the framework is assembled through an exploration of the term genocide, the historical events and artifacts that are presented in the museum and the current setup of the museum.
{"title":"Encoding Memory through Multimodality in Modern-Day Memorial Museums","authors":"G. Ghazaryan, Steven Donatelle","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.127015","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi62.127015","url":null,"abstract":"The article is devoted to the use of technology in memorial museums, particularly in those related to genocide. \u0000The authors use a multidisciplinary theoretical framework using a diverse toolkit from Semiotics, Communication Studies, and Philosophy to explain the benefits and dangers of implementing technology in a memorial museum. The framework makes particular use of Peirce’s idea of unlimited semiosis, Eco’s considerations about the multiplicity of meanings and the “open text”, the existence of not one but two narratives in museums—especially in memorial museums—and Heidegger’s writings on technology especially enframing and revealing which are invoked in order to explain the interplay between technology and memory. \u0000Being based in Yerevan, Armenia, the authors formulate their ideas with the Armenian Genocide Museum Institute (AGMI) in mind. This results in practical recommendations of how technology could be implemented in modern-day memorial museums, and identifies the benefits and dangers that must be kept in mind when doing so. \u0000The specific subject matter of the AGMI plays a part in how this discourse evolves and the framework is assembled through an exploration of the term genocide, the historical events and artifacts that are presented in the museum and the current setup of the museum.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"86 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-12-12","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"74015266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-02DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127925
Elena De la Cova
The language used in a product or service has an extraordinary impact on the creation of its brand and on its online success. As localization is a key aspect of a globalized business, attention should be given to the localization of brand language to ensure global consistency. This study explores brand language localization problems in an online help corpus. Specifically, it analyzes the problems posed by the localization of brand names and terms in the pre-translation phase, following Nord’s pre-translation text analysis theory (2012). The main objective of the study is to understand the nature of identified brand language problems (professional purposes) and examine them (research purposes). The method implemented is a qualitative, interpretative analysis of a monolingual corpus in English comprising representative extracts from the Dropbox and Google Drive Online Help systems. The study is part of a wider research project exploring the concept of localization problems in online help localization.
{"title":"Language and Brand","authors":"Elena De la Cova","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127925","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127925","url":null,"abstract":"The language used in a product or service has an extraordinary impact on the creation of its brand and on its online success. As localization is a key aspect of a globalized business, attention should be given to the localization of brand language to ensure global consistency. This study explores brand language localization problems in an online help corpus. Specifically, it analyzes the problems posed by the localization of brand names and terms in the pre-translation phase, following Nord’s pre-translation text analysis theory (2012). The main objective of the study is to understand the nature of identified brand language problems (professional purposes) and examine them (research purposes). The method implemented is a qualitative, interpretative analysis of a monolingual corpus in English comprising representative extracts from the Dropbox and Google Drive Online Help systems. The study is part of a wider research project exploring the concept of localization problems in online help localization.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"65 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"75971783","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-02DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127920
David Sánchez-Jiménez
This study correlates with a research study published in the journal Pragmalingüística, in which the contrastive use of the rhetorical functions of citations in master’s theses in Spanish and English was studied. The main objective pursued by this new research is to determine which rhetorical functions are used most frequently in the different parts of a master’s thesis and what these can accomplish in each part of the text. Following Petrić (2007), a computerized textual analysis of the rhetorical function of citation was used to study this phenomenon in a corpus of sixteen (16) theses of which eight (8) were written by American and eight (8) by Spanish postgraduates in their native language. With regards to cultural conventions, the results showed that when compared to native Spanish writers, the Americans students use the highest number of citations and write a relatively longer Introduction and Conclusion parts. The sets of functions are consonant with the rhetorical purpose of each part, which thus shows a close link between the citation and the structural organization of the academic text, despite the frequent use of Attribution (AT) in most parts of the thesis.
{"title":"Distribución de las Funciones Retóricas de las Citas en los Apartados del Trabajo Fin de Máster Escrito en Español y en Inglés","authors":"David Sánchez-Jiménez","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127920","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127920","url":null,"abstract":"This study correlates with a research study published in the journal Pragmalingüística, in which the contrastive use of the rhetorical functions of citations in master’s theses in Spanish and English was studied. The main objective pursued by this new research is to determine which rhetorical functions are used most frequently in the different parts of a master’s thesis and what these can accomplish in each part of the text. Following Petrić (2007), a computerized textual analysis of the rhetorical function of citation was used to study this phenomenon in a corpus of sixteen (16) theses of which eight (8) were written by American and eight (8) by Spanish postgraduates in their native language. With regards to cultural conventions, the results showed that when compared to native Spanish writers, the Americans students use the highest number of citations and write a relatively longer Introduction and Conclusion parts. The sets of functions are consonant with the rhetorical purpose of each part, which thus shows a close link between the citation and the structural organization of the academic text, despite the frequent use of Attribution (AT) in most parts of the thesis.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"7 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81702109","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2021-07-02DOI: 10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127908
Kristin Rygg
Languages vary when it comes to linguistic manifestations of formal politeness, but what particularly marks professional email communication is the flexibility of the genre compared to traditional, formal business letters. This poses the question of how individual email writers navigate without clear standards and clearly prescribed formulae. This study focuses on the individual email writer and, specifically, opening salutations and closing valedictions in 927Norwegian workplace emails, followed by metapragmatic interviews with their senders. In an egalitarian society with few explicit linguistic manifestations of formal politeness, individual choices of formulations provide a rich source of data. Linguistic content analysis reveals a significant degree of consistency in each person’s individual use, which indicates that when there are no commonly held norms, people make their own rules. The interviewees are aware ofwhich openings and closings they prefer, but often not why. Further analysis of the data reveals that hierarchical social distance is not a motivational factor, but the intentions to be either personally close or professionally distant are. Both are regarded as viable options in formal workplace emails by their users. However, the informants’ perception of which linguistic items represent these motivations depends on individual preferences rather than on any establishedor institutionalised practises. The latter is not a uniquely Norwegian problem, but concerns email correspondents in general because of the flexibility innate to the email genre.
{"title":"Openings and Closings in Workplace Emails","authors":"Kristin Rygg","doi":"10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127908","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.7146/hjlcb.vi61.127908","url":null,"abstract":"Languages vary when it comes to linguistic manifestations of formal politeness, but what particularly marks professional email communication is the flexibility of the genre compared to traditional, formal business letters. This poses the question of how individual email writers navigate without clear standards and clearly prescribed formulae. This study focuses on the individual email writer and, specifically, opening salutations and closing valedictions in 927Norwegian workplace emails, followed by metapragmatic interviews with their senders. In an egalitarian society with few explicit linguistic manifestations of formal politeness, individual choices of formulations provide a rich source of data. Linguistic content analysis reveals a significant degree of consistency in each person’s individual use, which indicates that when there are no commonly held norms, people make their own rules. The interviewees are aware ofwhich openings and closings they prefer, but often not why. Further analysis of the data reveals that hierarchical social distance is not a motivational factor, but the intentions to be either personally close or professionally distant are. Both are regarded as viable options in formal workplace emails by their users. However, the informants’ perception of which linguistic items represent these motivations depends on individual preferences rather than on any establishedor institutionalised practises. The latter is not a uniquely Norwegian problem, but concerns email correspondents in general because of the flexibility innate to the email genre.","PeriodicalId":38609,"journal":{"name":"Hermes (Denmark)","volume":"34 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2021-07-02","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"81035283","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
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