scholarly journals A Multidimensional Analysis of Pakistani English Written Discourse

2021 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 67-81
Author(s):  
Isra Irshad ◽  
Behzad Anwar

The present study analyzes Pakistani English written discourse through multidimensional analysis. For this purpose, two corpora types, including Pakistani universities' newsletters and Pakistani human rights NGOs' annual reports, have been complied. It has been investigated how the language of newsletters of Pakistani universities differs from that of annual reports of Pakistani human rights NGOs on D1 and D2 of the multidimensional approach. Biber’s (1988) multidimensional analysis provides the theoretical grounding to the present study. MAT software (1.3) has been used to tag and analyze the data. Co-occurrences of linguistic features are quantitatively analyzed and then qualitatively interpreted through D1 and D2 of multidimensional approach. The results reveal that the language of this written discourse of Pakistani English is informational on D1. By comparing it with Biber's work of 1988, it has been revealed that this genre is close to the official documents on D1. The language of Pakistani universities' newsletter is more informational on this dimension than that of the genre of Pakistani NGOs annual reports as the mean scores for both are -26.79 and -25.13, respectively. The analysis of the D2 indicates that the genre of the selected written discourse is non-narrative. However, Pakistani universities' newsletters are close to broadcasts, whereas the annual reports of human rights NGOs are close to the personal letters. Moreover, the newsletters discourse is strongly non-narrative than that of the annual reports.

Author(s):  
Martin Ian Ralph ◽  
Marcus Cattani

Abstract In the 2019-20 reporting period, nineteen mining operations in Western Australia were identified as having workers who were likely to be exposed to ionising radiation stemming from naturally occurring radioactive materials (NORMs), seventeen of which, known hereinafter as Reporting Entities (REs), were required to submit an annual report of the dose estimates of their workforce to the mining regulatory authority. In 2018 the International Commission for Radiological Protection published the revision of the Dose Coefficients (DCs) for occupational intakes of radionuclides of the uranium-238 and thorium-232 decay series, in ICRP-137 and ICRP-141. The 2019-20 annual reports are the first to apply the revised DCs to estimate worker doses. The mean effective dose (ED) reported by the 17 REs increased by 32.4% to 0.94 mSv in 2019-20 from 0.71 mSv reported in 2018-19, indicating that the mean ED is approaching the 1 mSv annual dose estimate at which regulatory intervention should be considered. The mean committed effective dose (CED) from inhalation of dusts containing long-lived alpha-emitting (LLα) nuclides has increased by 35% from 0.40 mSv in 2018-19 to 0.54 mSv in 2019-20. The maximum CED from LLα increased by 16.3% from 3.20 mSv in 2018-19 to 3.72 mSv in 2019-20. The authors consider that, in the absence of other explanations provided by the REs, the increase is largely attributable to the revised DC’s published in ICRP-137 and ICRP-141, but highlight that there are significant variations between REs that make a generalised conclusion problematic. The maximum reported ED in 2019-20 was 6.0 mSv, an increase of 36.4% from 2018-19 (4.4 mSv). The 2019-20 reporting period is the first time in a decade in which mine worker EDs have been elevated to the point that EDs have exceeded 5 mSv, a level at which personal monitoring and additional institutional controls are required.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (16) ◽  
pp. 9252
Author(s):  
Álvaro Moro ◽  
Concepción Maiztegui-Oñate ◽  
Josu Solabarrieta

The notion of vulnerability has acquired an important role in social policy debates. Therefore, the identification of vulnerable groups and their conditions is particularly important for the orientation of public policies and risk reduction. This article aims to offer a broad vision of the situation of European youth (15–29) using three dimensions of vulnerability (personal, economic and socio-cultural dimensions). To do so, we developed a multidimensional approach combining a system of indicators (N = 33) to contrast the evolution of the aforementioned dimensions among the European countries. Based on secondary analysis of quantitative data on European member states, we compared the evolution during two moments in time. The first period examined was 2012–2014, after the global financial crises but prior to the implementation of Youth Guarantee, whereas the second was the period which allowed for an examination of the latest updated data available (2017). Our results confirm territorial imbalances that affect the lives of European youth and their future opportunities. Northern countries led this scenario combining an inclusive education system with supportive labor market policies offering more opportunities to overcome risks. Although this multidimensional analysis is exploratory, its findings provide preliminary insight into the configuration of the dimensions of vulnerability in European youth.


Author(s):  
Pace John P

This chapter describes the various approaches adopted by the Commission on Human Rights—and later by the Human Rights Council—to support implementation processes, starting with the introduction of Advisory Services in 1955. These were to serve as a support for the Commission’s work in implementing its programme of work, notably the follow-up to its work on the International Bill of Human Rights. These services were to be provided at the request of Governments and to consist of: ‘(i) Advisory services of experts, (ii) Fellowships and scholarships, (iii) Seminars’. In 1956, the Commission opened up yet another approach. The Yearbook on Human Rights had introduced a system of ‘Annual Reports on human Rights’ whereby governments shared information on measures taken at the domestic level. The chapter traces the development of other approaches by the Commission including investigations, regional commissions, national institutions (including the Paris Principles) and voluntary funds. It also looks at the emergence of international (or hybrid) criminal tribunals, all of which included crimes against humanity (or human rights crimes) in their jurisdiction.


2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-21
Author(s):  
Rachel Murray

Abstract There has been increasing attention to the implementation of decisions of human rights bodies by scholars and by supranational institutions, states, litigants, and civil society. A project funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) tracked the implementation by nine states of decisions adopted by human rights courts and commissions in the European, African and Inter-American systems and by select UN treaty bodies. This article summarizes the methodology and findings of the Project and in so doing forms an introduction to a series of articles and practice notes published in this special issue. A range of factors are identified from the research which influence implementation and stress the importance of a multifaceted, multidimensional approach to the issues. Implementation is not automatic and requires mechanisms, processes, and the involvement of actors (national and supranational) for states to comply with the reparations ordered in the decision. A case-by-case, state-by-state, context-specific approach is needed, tailored to the circumstances. This has implications for the manner in which litigants present their submissions, engage with state and supranational bodies and for the latter in terms of their roles and relationships with the various actors.


2017 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
pp. 127 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vinh To

Grammatical intricacy is an important concept in charactering complexity of language (Halliday, 2008). However, this concept has not yet been fully investigated in the teaching and learning of English as a foreign language (TEFL), particular in English as a foreign language (EFL) textbooks in higher education. This paper aims to examine grammatical intricacy across textbook levels in a book series used in tertiary education in the Vietnamese context. This is part of a larger research project looking at linguistic complexity of English textbooks in the TEFL setting. The research employed Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) as the main theoretical framework and Halliday’s method as a measure of grammatical intricacy to look at how this language feature was used in reading comprehension texts in four textbooks at different levels including elementary, pre-intermediate, inter-mediate and upper-intermediate. The findings revealed that grammatical intricacy increased in accordance with the book levels. Particularly, the mean scores of grammatical intricacy showed a gradual increase from the elementary to the intermediate book level; though they were not different significantly and the upper-intermediate textbook did not show the topmost grammatical complexity. These findings suggest that the use of grammatical intricacy in the investigated textbooks was appropriate for EFL learners across levels; however, the use of other linguistic features such as lexical density and nominalisation may potentially impact the use of simple clauses in the textbooks at a higher level. Thus, further investigations are recommended to fully explore the complexity of textbook language.      


Author(s):  
Md Hafij Ullah ◽  
Parvez Mia

The banking sector plays a critical role in economic development while its activities are also equally responsible for social and environmental damage such as violation of human rights, loss of biodiversity, and climate change in Bangladesh. A careful examination of investing and financing activities disclosed in annual reports of 35 selected banks suggest that, while banks are taking several in-house and external green initiatives, many of them are also actively investing and funding projects like shipbreaking that threaten environmental sustainability and are prone to human rights violation. This chapter urges the government, policymakers, and central bank in developing policies and regulating banks; stakeholders in understanding banks' commitment and actions to safeguard the environment and human rights; and managers in measuring, reporting, and mitigating the social and environmental impact through their current and future lending policies.


2008 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 268-305 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bertus van Rooy

Evidence for the status of Black South African English (BlSAfE) as a variety of English is ambiguous. This paper examines 67 linguistic features of a corpus of BlSAfE student writing, the Tswana Learner English Corpus (TLE), in comparison to a Standard English reference corpus, the Louvain Corpus of Native English Speaking Students (LOCNESS), within the framework of Biber’s (1988) multidimensional model, to determine if evidence for indigenisation and systematicity exists. Linguistic features that occur more frequently in LOCNESS than the TLE suggest that LOCNESS is characterised by greater elaboration of information and information density, more syntactically complex subordination, more reference cohesion and more specialised meanings. The TLE shows evidence of greater involvement of reader and writer of the text, although some features of informality also occur in LOCNESS. Based on comparison of the coefficients of variation in the two corpora, it is concluded that they exhibit similar ranges of variation and that variety status cannot be denied to BlSAfE on the grounds of variability. The application of the multidimensional model shows that the reference corpus, LOCNESS, is similar to academic writing in four of the six dimensions, but differs in being more involved in style and more overtly persuasive. Superficially, the TLE appears to be quite similar to LOCNESS in terms of the various dimensions, but closer examination reveals a number of differences, which largely confirm the findings that were made on the basis of individual feature comparisons: The TLE carries a lower informational density, and information is more often presented in hypothetical ways. It shows a number of similarities with the style and the information processing strategies attributed to spoken registers, but it still remains very clearly distinguishable from spoken language. Many similarities between the corpora are observed, which should be attributed to the register features of student writing. The paper concludes that there is sufficient evidence to acknowledge BlSAfE as a variety of English, on the ground of the stylistic differences between the TLE and LOCNESS, particularly its greater interpersonal as opposed to informational focus, as well as discourse-functional differences in the use of linguistic forms.


2010 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-46 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sunita Goel ◽  
Jagdish Gangolly ◽  
Sue R. Faerman ◽  
Ozlem Uzuner

ABSTRACT: Extensive research has been done on the analytical and empirical examination of financial data in annual reports to detect fraud; however, there is scant research on the analysis of text in annual reports to detect fraud. The basic premise of this research is that there are clues hidden in the text that can be detected to determine the likelihood of fraud. In this research, we examine both the verbal content and the presentation style of the qualitative portion of the annual reports using natural language processing tools and explore linguistic features that distinguish fraudulent annual reports from nonfraudulent annual reports. Our results indicate that employment of linguistic features is an effective means for detecting fraud. We were able to improve the prediction accuracy of our fraud detection model from initial baseline results of 56.75 percent accuracy, using a “bag of words” approach, to 89.51 percent accuracy when we incorporated linguistically motivated features inspired by our informed reasoning and domain knowledge.


Author(s):  
Iryna Surovtseva

The article is devoted to the partnership of social workers and ombudsmen as an influential tool for the citizens' rights protection. The common aspects of professional activity of social workers and ombudsmen in the citizens' rights protection of Ukraine and European countries are analyzed. Analyzed the annual reports of the National Ombudsman, clarified the dynamics of the receipt of citizens' reports about violations of their rights. There is a growing number of human rights violations in the field of social protection. The ombudsman has the right to make recommendations to the central executive bodies, which are ripe after the monitoring visits. Through the activities of social workers and the ombudsman, the state assumes the main functions of ensuring human rights in the social sphere. Foreign experience on the significant role of «natural allies» (social workers and ombudsmen) in drafting a formal protocol of strategic and tactical cooperation to optimize the residents' interests based on a friendly advisory approach have been highlighted. Most often, social workers and ombudsmen are forced to act as intermediaries between people and the state or other bodies to uphold justice and provide protection in cases where measures taken by the state in the interests of society as a whole threaten the rights and freedoms of individuals or groups. There is a need to intensify cooperation between the ombudsman's offices, social protection departments and social service providers (for example, through the joint Commissions on the quality of social services establishment, joint investigations into unsatisfactory social or medical care complaints). It seems relevant to expand the positions of specialized ombudsmen (for social protection (security), military ombudsman) as independent officials in communities (municipalities) for Ukraine.


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