This paper presents an analysis of the ditransitive constructions in Finnish, a language with flexible word order. I argue that the base-generated order of Finnish ditransitive structures, which permit both direct object-indirect object (DO-IO) order and IO-DO order, is in fact DO-IO. According to my analysis, IO-DO order is generated by discourse-driven scrambling of the IO. These claims are s...

Coh-Metrix is a linguistic tool used by many researchers to quickly measure cohesion and coherence of text. Because it is a free, easy to use, and quite efficient linguistic tool, it is widely used in academic research and analysis. The results of many of these studies are dependent on the accuracy of the Coh-Metrix tool. I will be testing the accuracy of CohMetrix, focusing on its analysis of ...

This paper uses discourse analysis to examine the free/libre and open source movements. It analyses how they fix elements within the order of discourse of computer code production. It attempts to uncover the key signifiers in their discourses and trace linkages between the sedimented discourses of wider society. Using discourse theory and critical discourse analysis, the theoretical foundations...

Writing is "good" when it anticipates the knowledge that its readers will bring to it-the questions they will implicitly ask-and tailors its content and form accordingly. A large part of this tailoring involves the careful use of "discourse clues": choices of wording, patterns of phrasing, and specific discourse connectives that signal the structure and intent of a text to the audience. We begi...

Newspaper preferences for particular formats of speech presentation differ and they change in the course of time. In this contribution we focus on The Times and trace such developments in the formative years of the modern Anglo-American newspapers, from 1833 to 1988. We extracted data from The Times Digital Archive in six samples of roughly 5000 words at intervals of 31 years and analysed the t...

Production and perception experiments with native speakers of Russian, a free word order language, show that prosody and change in word order are used to mark discourse-prominent constituents. Concurrent application of these cues to prominence is possible, as evident from distinctively higher f0 and intensity maxima, and duration values associated with exsitu words, as well as their higher visi...

This study aimed to examine cross-cultural differences in performing refusal of requests between Persian native speakers (PNSs) and English native speakers (ENSs) in terms of the frequency of the semantic formulas. Also examined in this study was whether Persian EFL learners would transfer their L1 refusal patterns into the L2, and if there would be a relation between their proficiency level an...