https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/5351 ES: Revista de filología inglesa - 2008 - Num. 29 2026-04-19T10:31:39Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17366 This article examines the role played by conspiracy in Don DeLillo's fiction. As the author of novels in which plots are often central thematic elements, he has been frequently associated to this term in academic writing. My aim is to go beyond the usual politic al and sociological readings of conspiracy in his work in order to offer a rhetorical and narratological interpretation. I will claim that conspiracy can work as a principle of organization in his novel s, determining narrative structures and reading strategies. I will analyze the figurative language associated to conspiracy and the ways in which it can be said to shape the narrative structure of many of DeLillo's novels. Finally, the ethical implications of this kind of narrative will be briefly addressed, following the idea that conspiracy in fiction can offer relief to the anxiety and uncertainty provoked by particular historical events. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17363 Mina Loy wrote the long poem "Anglo-Mongrels and the Rose" between 1923 and 1925. It is among the oddest of all modernist long poems, a strange combination of satire, didactic commentary and lyrical mysticism. Loy offers a pseudo-autobiographical chronicle of her family and of her own birth and childhood. The poem is made up of three sections of different length, "Exodus", "English Rose", and "Mongrel Rose." It is in this last part of the poem where the author narrates the birth of Ova, who is a representation of Mina Loy as a child, a rather ironic and sceptic version of herself. My aim in the present paper is to show that the mongrel identity Loy creates for Ova is enriching and protests patriarchal definitions of the feminine, however, Ova seems unable to overcome the conflicts derived from her mother's restrictive manifestation and practice of gender conventions. Consequently, as Ova's creativity and artistic aspirations will be seriously limited, she is not able to offer a strong alternative for female expression and power. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17364 This paper examines features which have continued to impact adversely on the oral proficiency of learners of especially English, in the light of a supposed decline in the standards of education in Nigeria. There has been a preponderance of studies on leaner-centered impediments to learning of Oral English in a second language environment as Nigeria, while the all-important role of the teacher is often either mentioned in passing or all-together ignored, hence the need for this study. This study elucidates the circumstances that brought about the downward trend in learners' performances debunking the constant reference to learners as mostly responsible for the situation. It calls for a re-examination of Teacher-talking-Time (TTT) and the significance of Teacher-Language Awareness (TLA) since teachers' awareness, application and response to factors regarding TTT and TLA examined in this paper are important precursors of learners' oral proficiency. The study concludes by suggesting the need to pay more attention to these areas in ESL teaching operations. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17365 Frank Bergon's novel The Temptations of Sto Ed and Brother S (1993) is the revision of core and periphery identities and cultures. This novel analyses some of strategies that are utilized in the configuration and self-definition of the I. The exercise of exclusion and self-alienation practices is part of the devices that are utilized by Bergon's characters. However, the role of the desert is of utmost relevance, for it constitutes the space where diverse cultures and identities clash with each other; in other words, the desert conveys the meeting point of the different representatives of mainstream and minority America. Bergon's arid and hostile desert mirrors the kaleidoscopic nature that characterizes the American West. Bergon's proposes, rather than impose, the federation of diverse identities and interests in order to establish the I in coexistence and dialogue with the Other. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17360 This article contends that the collocation of words in a given textual situation is closely linked to the establishment of mental spaces and to the construction of mental models which are generated online as information is received and discourse is interpreted and processed (Fauconnier 1994, Fauconnier and Turner 2002). This connects with aspects of Hoey's theory of priming (2005), where collocation is seen as a textual cohesive phenomenon governed by the text producers' choice s of word combinations and by the text receivers' prospects of re-usage. The analysis of data from a small corpus of poli tic al discourse in the media supports the conceptual approach to collocation, and suggests considering this lexico-semantic cohesive function of words a cognitive property of linguistic expressions. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17361 The relationship between the speaking patterns of women and their social identities have previously been analysed in both oral interaction and written texts. The present paper examines contrastively British and Spanish female gender identity in personal weblogs, one of the latest modes of virtual communication. More specifically, this study is concerned with the tribulations of the British and Spanish teenage female self in narrating their love-lives in personal weblogs. It will be acknowledged that the construction of the teenage female self is still unstable in the twenty-first century. The results suggest these tribulations shed further light on the underlying ideological process which reveals the fight between the persistence of traditional patriarchal feminine behaviours and the appearance of culturally based androgynous behaviour patterns in both British and Spanish societies. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17362 One of the most influential genre scholars is John Swales. His 1990 book Genre Analysis is a point of reference in the field and he is considered one of the most widely respected and cited researchers. The aim of this article is to demonstrate how John Swales' approach to genre analysis, which was originally designed to research English in academic and research settings, can al so be used for the textual analysis of occupational genres. The theory he develops in his latest two books (1990, 2004) focussing on discourse community, methodology and genre will be considered and applied to an occupational research corpus. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17354 This paper focuses on the applications of phonemic contrasts in the utterances of forty final-year Yoruba-English bilingual University undergraduates and the implications of their applications on pedagogic practices in, especially, the English as a second language (ESL) environment. This subject is rarely studied in Nigeria, yet, it might be significant for shaping the effective teaching of oral English in especially the ESL environments. The respondents, twenty of whom were students of English and the other twenty, students of Yoruba, were tested based on the framework of traditional phonemic theory. The results indicated that only 40% of students of Yoruba were able to apply phonemic contrasts in the rendition of English words whereas 60% of the students of English did. The study establishes application or otherwise of phonological rules as a vital dimension of investigating phonological variation and proficiencies in ESL and suggests the need to pay more attention to the area in ESL teaching and learning operations, especially for students in other disciplines. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17355 This paper focuses on issues facing foreign students currently studying in a junior high school in Japan. A questionnaire was given to these students to determine what issues they face and the results are discussed below. The author introduces some measures to support the students by the school. In addition, the author makes some suggestions for creating a better environment of the "internationalized classrooms" and how it can be made and maintained.This questionnaire, as a pilot study, was conducted in a junior high school of Mie Prefecture in February through March 2007. The questions the subjects were asked were (1) what language(s) they use to talk with their parents/families at home, (2) how much they use Japanese daily, (3) how much they usually understand the contents in social studies class, (4) how much they usually understand the contents in mathematics class, (5) if they are interested in studying Japanese, (6) if they are studying Japanese in a supplementary class, (7) if they are interested in studying English, and (8) if they are studying the languages of their own countries.The results demonstrate the students' multi-nationalization with a variety of their native languages. They also imply the necessity of comprehensive educational measures to help these students acquire/study Japanese as the instructional medium at school. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17356 The problematic nature of the adaptation of literary works to cinema is still today a widely debated and cultivated subject. Yet from early treatises which threw light on the question from very dissimilar perspectives, the topic of fidelity-or infidelity, depending on the case-to the original work was deeply studied, considering that in the translation process, the hierarchical hegemony of the literary discourse should be preserved and, its content, scrupulously respected.But, what is the real sense of referring to legitimacy when dealing with contemporary translation? The lines the reader has just iniciated start from a definition of the current concept of "adaptation", focalizing later upon the impracticality and inadequacy of the notion of fidelity. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17357 The gothic aspect is a common feature of short stories by the North American writer Edgar Allan Poe and Peruvian modernist Clemente Palma. This movement is shown from different perspectives such as rejection of illustrated official morality, interest in showing what is hidden, monstruous or grotesque and finally, the representation of personal and psychological issues in literary works. This study analyzes one of these hidden thoughts and main worries of fin-de-siecle man: fear from femenine sexuality expressed through male gothic, especially portraying the imaginary that is projected through the tales "Ligeia" by Poe (1893) and "Leyendas de haschisch" by Palma (1904). In this article I present a differentiation between anglo-saxon and latinamerican gothic, based on historic, cultural, linguistic and geographical differences. My main goal is to clarify representation, symbolism, development of horror in the tale and the presence of the death/sleeping beauty in the experiences of these narcotized narrators. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17358 Contrastive and Error Analysis are used as methods to explain why some features of a Target Language are more difficult to acquire than others. The difficulty in mastering idioms in a second language depends on the difference between the learner's mother language and the language they are trying to learn. This article focuses on the teaching and learning of phraseological units in Spanish language, and its importance in the field of ESL (Spanish Second Language). These expressions characterized by idiomaticity and fixation are of great interest for Anglophone learners. Semantic, morphosyntactic and pragmatic parameters are the basis for the Contrastive Analysis applied to the Phraseology, in which the aim is to establish relationships of equivalence/unequivalence among the different phraseological units in both languages English and Spanish. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z https://uvadoc.uva.es/handle/10324/17359 One of the thorniest issues that contemporary scholars of British India are faced with is that of the genesis of the Indian National Congress (1885). While some of them believe that the foundation of this first major political party on an all-India basis was an inevitable corollary of the circumstances that prevailed in the South Asian Sub-continent as a result of British Raj, others have held opposing views. In fact, the latter, while championing the "safety-valve" theory, are convinced that the birth of this political organization was nothing more than a British stratagem aimed at forestalling an imminent popular uprising among the colonial subjects. Thus, the aim of this article is to set out the views and arguments of both camps of scholars. 2008-01-01T00:00:00Z