The paper explores the recently published Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows (Koenig 2021) as a corpus of neologisms coined to express different emotions that are usually (and universally) experienced but not easily expressed by words. Created from different languages in contact, the newly-coined words will be used to further explore theoretical frameworks on linguistic creativity and the concept of the dictionary as the definitions of the words are given in English. The aim of the paper is to focus on the words proposed to express different emotions related to specific kinds of fear, isolation and anxiety. In relation to the words' manifestation in letter or sound, the paper will also address mentalese (Pinker 1994) as a framework and a concept proposing that lexicons need to co-operate in this unique kind of a dictionary that does not call for an active usage of the words coined but rather presents a dictionary that is a container of new emotions. / Keywords: mentalese, new emotions, languages in contact, multilingual dictionary, contemporary English

Taking an interdisciplinary approach, this paper analyses power play, speech strategies, and speech impact in Harold Pinter’s one-act play Mountain Language (1988), in which prison officials exercise power over inmates and their visitors through various tactics of control and subjugation. The paper’s methodological framework of corpus analysis is founded upon the linguistic features of police speak in the English language (a hybrid genre of spoken language police officers use when interrogating suspects), which, we propose, permeates the discourse in Mountain Language. The paper first reflects on discourses on/of power as observed in literary theory, then examines discursive strategies in the play, to illustrate speech impact caused by “conduct-regulating persuasion” and linguistic features of verbal violence. It also reflects on the concept of the persuasive power of discourse, in terms of the impact it may have on the mindset and behaviour of the interlocutor(s).

The paper discusses the visual response to text as a reading strategy employed to determine which parts or main ideas of the text the reader focuses on while reading. It starts with an assumption that every reading is a unique experience to which readers bring their previous experiences, cultural and social backgrounds, as well as general or specific knowledge. Therefore, the aim of the paper is to provide a better insight into active reading (Carillo 2017) and present results of a case study that, through visual responses to reading, also addresses text processing in a multimodal setting. The methodological framework comprises a visual response task that requires that the readers draw or sketch a visual interpretation of the text. In this way, sketching in response to reading is used as a complementary component and a visualization tool in the reading process (Wilhelm 1995; Fernandes 2018). Based on the results of the research, it is proposed that visual response to reading can be used to enhance multimodal creativity, and vocabulary acquisition and fully immerse readers in the reading process.

In the present paper, the authors analyse attitudes of students (N=91) studying at the Department of English Language and Literature toward distance learning launched at the Faculty of Philosophy, University of Sarajevo, during the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. The study is designed as action research containing elements of both qualitative and quantitative research. The key instrument for collecting data was a survey designed by the authors of the present paper. The Google Forms survey was delivered to 1st-5th year students at the Department of English Language and Literature by e-mail. The collected data were processed by means of SPSS software (descriptive statistics). Results of the analysis show that students do not consider “distance learning’’ to be of better quality when compared to “learning in the classroom’’ but also that students, in the period of returning to a “new normal’’, openly express their preference for blended learning. At the same time, results of the analysis reveal that it is necessary to modernise teaching practices by means of introducing a more representative version of the distance learning system that would not only significantly improve the quality of the teaching practices, but also assist in maintaining competitiveness of the Faculty of Philosophy as a higher education institution.

Key words: hypertext, authorship, multimodality, culture, social presence ABSTRACT The present paper discusses theoretical concepts on the depth of linear and non-linear text in the context of teaching. It also discusses how multimodality can be adopted for activating an intercultural exchange when sharing common referential frameworks to enhance reading for translation. In particular, this paper proposes that converting linear texts to non-linear applications could be more beneficial to foreign language students.

It is believed by many that our fingerprints are as unique as our DNA. Owing to the advances in modern technology and the aid of computers, it is possible to use software that is able to measure all the probabilities of occurrence of identical fingerprints, DNA, written or spoken discourse. In recent years, forensic discourse analysis experts and linguists have been trying to measure the degree to which every individual is unique. These findings are especially relevant for analysing the content of suicide letters, testimonies, testaments, ransom demands, confessions, SMS messages, diary entries etc. The quest of forensic discourse analysis is to apply the linguistic knowledge to the legal context with the aim of deciding on the authorship of the above-mentioned short notes. In applying the linguistic knowledge to the analysis of suicide letters, for instance, it is of great importance to determine whether there is a murder behind such a letter, viz. whether the letter is a genuine suicide letter. Another interesting phenomenon is related to testimonies, viz. the degree to which the interrogators added written content to the oral confession, or the degree to which the testimony, based on the linguistic evidence, is false. In this process, experts apply various methods of measuring the degree to which the testimonies are authentic. Some of these methods involve measuring sentence length average, word length average, collocations analysis, and forensic transcription. The aim of this paper is to pay tribute to forensic discourse analysis of English texts and focus on some of its methods that are particularly related to the application of the linguistic knowledge. In doing so, we shall focus on a brief analysis of two well-known cases, Derek Bentley and Susan Smith.