SURNAME ________________________ NAME ___________________________
MATRICULATION NUMBER ______________
LETTORATO MARK __________ LETTORATO SESSION ____________________
LINGUA INGLESE II ANNUALITÀ 2014-2015
SCIENZE DELLA MEDIAZIONE LINGUISTICA (L-12)
(STUDENTI M-Z)
Prof.ssa Alessandra Molino
Time allowed: 3 hours
FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY: WRITE YOUR ANSWERS ON A
SEPARATE SHEET. REMEMBER TO WRITE YOUR SURNAME AND NAME (IN
CAPITAL LETTERS), MATRICULATION NUMBER and ON YOUR ANSWER SHEET.
1. Define the notion of cohesion and illustrate one type of cohesive relation.
Make reference to the relevant literature and provide examples. Write about
300 words.
2. What are news reports? Answer the question providing a description of the
news report as a genre. Focus on its macrostructural features. Write about
300 words.
3. Read the following concluding passages from John F. Kennedy's and
Barack Obama's Inaugural Speeches. Compare the two texts in terms of the
main metaphors used, identifying source and target domains and discussing
their functions. Write between 300 and 350 words.
"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of
defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I
welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or
any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will
light our country and all who serve it - and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do
for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can
do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same
high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only
sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our
own." (John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Speech, 20 January 1961)
____________
"America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember
these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and
endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were
tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and
with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of
freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America." (Barack Obama’s
Inaugural Speech, 20 January 2009)
SURNAME ________________________ NAME ___________________________
MATRICULATION NUMBER ______________
LETTORATO MARK __________ LETTORATO SESSION ____________________
LINGUA INGLESE II ANNUALITÀ 2014-2015
SCIENZE DELLA MEDIAZIONE LINGUISTICA (L-12)
(STUDENTI M-Z)
Prof.ssa Alessandra Molino
Time allowed: 3 hours
FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY: WRITE YOUR ANSWERS ON A
SEPARATE SHEET. REMEMBER TO WRITE YOUR SURNAME AND NAME (IN
CAPITAL LETTERS), MATRICULATION NUMBER and ON YOUR ANSWER SHEET.
Question 1: Define the notion of cohesion and illustrate one type of cohesive
relation. Make reference to the relevant literature and provide examples.
Write about 300 words.
Cohesion is an essential property of texts: a passage containing more than one
sentence cannot be considered a "text" if it lacks cohesion. Cohesion is a semantic
relation that links one item of the text to a preceding or following one. In other words,
in order to interpret the meaning of a cohesive item, we need to make reference to a
presupposed element occurring earlier or later in the text. Depending on whether the
cohesive item points backward or forward, we distinguish two domains of cohesive
relations, respectively anaphora and cataphora.
Cohesion may be realised through grammar or lexis. Grammatical cohesion includes
reference, substitution and ellipsis, whereas lexical cohesion involves semantic
relations at the level of vocabulary. A fifth category is that of conjunction, which lies in
between grammar and lexis. Conjunction is the type of cohesive relations that I will
describe in greater detail.
According to Halliday and Hasan (1976), conjunction specifies how a clause, sentence
or paragraph is connected to the preceding one. Depending on the meaning of the
conjunction, we may distinguish different types of conjunctive relation: additive,
adversative, causal and temporal. Additive relations indicate that what follows is
additional information to complement what has just been said (e.g. moreover, further,
in addition). Adversative relations express meanings such as opposition and contrast
and indicate correction (e.g. however, on the contrary, instead). Causal conjunctions
identify the cause, reason or consequence of something (e.g. because, as a result).
Finally, temporal relations indicate how two text passages are related in terms of time
(e.g. meanwhile, until then, finally). Each type of conjunctive relation may be further
divided into external and internal. External relations describe the link between events
or phenomena occurring in the real world. Internal relations, on the other hand, have
to do with the logical connections of the various parts of text.
[304 words]
SURNAME ________________________ NAME ___________________________
MATRICULATION NUMBER ______________
LETTORATO MARK __________ LETTORATO SESSION ____________________
Question 2: What are news reports? Answer this question providing a
description of the news report as a genre. Focus on its macrostructural
features (write about 300 words)
The news report is one of the genres of journalism. In various traditions, it is
characterised by objectivity and factuality, and tends to avoid the explicit expression
of opinion and the engagement of the reader.
The news report is characterised by a typical macrostructure consisting of headline,
attribution, lead and main body of the text. Headlines may be composed of a headline
proper and a subheadline. The purposes of headlines are to attract the attention of
readers, to present the main topic of the news report and to provide the perspective
from which the story is told. To achieve these aims, headlines are characterised by
rhetorical features such as alliteration, rhyme and assonance; they may contain
emotive and evaluative language; and they tend to introduce the topic in a concise
way through abbreviations, elliptical forms, and preferring lexical to function words.
The attribution consists in the indication of the time and place of publication and the
name of the journalist(s) who wrote the piece. The lead is the first paragraph of the
news report. It is a strategic passage of the article as it offers a summary of the story
following the so-called five Ws of journalism, i.e. who, when, where, what, why. In
some newspapers the lead is printed in bold type to distinguish it from the rest of the
text and in online editions it often corresponds to the short text that appears in the
homepage. The last but largest portion of a news report is the body of the text, which
presents the events in the narrative mode. Stories are normally not reported in
chronological order; indeed an important distinction is that between "story" and
"plot": the story corresponds to the sequence of events as they actually occurred,
whereas the plot is the order in which they are reported.
[302 words]
SURNAME ________________________ NAME ___________________________
MATRICULATION NUMBER ______________
LETTORATO MARK __________ LETTORATO SESSION ____________________
3. Read the following concluding passages from John F. Kennedy's and
Barack Obama's Inaugural Speeches. Compare the two texts in terms of the
metaphors used identifying source and target domains and discussing their
functions. Write between 300 and 350 words.
"In the long history of the world, only a few generations have been granted the role of
defending freedom in its hour of maximum danger. I do not shrink from this responsibility - I
welcome it. I do not believe that any of us would exchange places with any other people or
any other generation. The energy, the faith, the devotion which we bring to this endeavor will
light our country and all who serve it - and the glow from that fire can truly light the world.
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you - ask what you can do
for your country.
My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can
do for the freedom of man.
Finally, whether you are citizens of America or citizens of the world, ask of us here the same
high standards of strength and sacrifice which we ask of you. With a good conscience our only
sure reward, with history the final judge of our deeds, let us go forth to lead the land we love,
asking His blessing and His help, but knowing that here on earth God's work must truly be our
own." (John F. Kennedy's Inaugural Speech, 20 January 1961)
____________
"America. In the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship, let us remember
these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave once more the icy currents, and
endure what storms may come. Let it be said by our children's children that when we were
tested, we refused to let this journey end, that we did not turn back, nor did we falter; and
with eyes fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great gift of
freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
Thank you. God bless you and God bless the United States of America." (Barack Obama’s
Inaugural Speech, 20 January 2009)
These two Inaugural Speeches were delivered in very different historical and political phases.
When Kennedy became President of the USA in 1961, the world's geopolitical landscape was
changing: the USA and the Soviet Union were competing for global supremacy and Kennedy's
main concern was that of creating a web of allies to America from potential attacks. On the
other hand, in 2009 Obama's main threats were the financial crisis and terrorism. Despite
these differences, these concluding passages present remarkable rhetorical similarities,
particularly the use of metaphor as a means of persuasion.