Tijdschrift voor Taalbeheersing - Volume 31, Issue 1, 2009

In journalistic text genres, clearly discernable representations of source text are ubiqituous, such as direct and indirect speech, but also mixed types of quotation such as free indirect speech and paraphrase can be found, in which the voices of journalist and source are much harder to tell apart. Analysis of various types of news texts about one and the same case shows that in news reports, direct or indirect speech are preferred while the mixed type free indirect speech is avoided; by contrast, this type is more frequent in background articles and opiniating news text. Even the free indirect thought - a mixed type rooted in fictive genres - appears to be possible in these subgenres. Mixing voices of source and journalist is also expressed in references to characters and events. Examples from the journalistic subgenres are compared with respect to the form and function of source representation and voice mixing. Analysis of the mental spaces that are attributed to sources in various news genres helps explaining how the mixing of voices is established.

Is it possible to shorten an 80-item diagnostic writing ability test without a substantial loss in reliability and validity, and without a substantial reduction in the quality of the advices based on the scores of this test? The starting point of this psychometric-analytical study is a practical case: a formative writing ability test which has to be completed by accountants before they are allowed to follow an e-learning training programme for improving the quality of writing management letters. Based on the results of this diagnostic test, the accountants get specific advices which are tuned to their specific writing abilities and shortcomings: in the e-learning they have to pay special attention to certain problems in the writing of management letters, while others problems may be skipped. The time to complete this diagnostic test (on average 3 hours) is a main problem in view of the limited time of the participants and the duration of the whole e-learning training programme (8 hours).

Quotation is a discourse phenomenon characterised by a textual relation of embedding. As a result, quotations are inherently ambiguous. The quoted source is basically liable for the content of the quotation, but due to several circumstances (such as the social position of the quoting and quoted source, the formal aspects of the way the quotation is embedded, and the function of the quotation) the liability may partly or fully shift to the quoting source. This paper examines a corpus of both criminal and civil cases from Dutch jurisprudence in which a text, in particular a quotation in the text, became the subject of the judicial formation of a judgement. The analysis focuses on whether and how the courts ground their judgments (who is why liable?) in characteristics of the text and of the communication process surrounding the text.

Mariëlle Leijten (2007). Writing and Speech Recognition. Observing Error Correction Strategies of Professional Writers.