Conflicts in human interaction ignite due to differentials regarding ideology, class, power, religion and politics. Language use during such conflicts tends to become aggressive and impolite. In October 2020, a hashtag protest, #EndSARS, rocked Nigeria as the youths protested, demanding the immediate scrapping of the controversial police unit, the Special Anti-Robbery Squad (SARS), as well as registering other social grievances. To this effect, communication in the social media became laced with derogatory lexicon. It is against this backdrop that this research investigates linguistic aggression and impoliteness strategies in the #EndSARS discourses. A total of 500 excerpts were collected through the Opera Mini News App (https://www.opera.com/mini) using the purposive sampling technique. These included reactions and counter-reactions in the news within the two weeks of the protest. Out of these, 50 excerpts were further sampled using the simple random technique. The sourced data were analysed using Culpeper’s Model of Impoliteness (1996) and Conventionalised Impoliteness Formulae (2010). Amongst other things, the findings revealed various impoliteness strategies such as bald on record and mock impoliteness, as well as personalised negative vocatives and threats. These findings are affirmations that the interactants did not mitigate the face of the addressees. This research concludes, therefore, that the #EndSARS discourses were filled with impolite acts which are capable of igniting conflict in the nation.
Educational models that emphasise the transmission of fixed content knowledge are increasingly challenged by more flexible and self-regulated learning. This article examines the paradigmatic shift to knowledge generation, skills-based lifelong learning, and adaptability with 21st-century skills in teaching and learning English for Specific Purposes (ESP). Content-Based Instruction (CBI) has long existed in ESP, but while CBI has historically integrated language learning with subject matter, its focus on fixed content has less emphasis on equipping students with 21st-century skills. In this study, ESP teachers in a Finnish university were asked about their views on the relevance of 21st-century skills to ESP teaching and learning. The results indicate that ESP teachers see 21st-century skills as very relevant to ESP, as students must develop modern working life skills and their English, especially for communication, collaboration, and critical thinking. The rise of artificial intelligence, however, raises concerns among ESP teachers about its impact on both teaching and second language acquisition. Based on the results, CBI for ESP can be enhanced to function more effectively to support students’ 21st-century and English language skills to better prepare them for versatile language and communication competence.
The influence of English as a global language on Latvian and Lithuanian (two related Baltic languages) has increased significantly over the past three decades. This phenomenon is not limited to direct loanwords but also encompasses semantic changes in existing native and previously borrowed words. The contrastive study is based on a set of borrowed words of English origin that have undergone semantic change in Lithuanian and Latvian in the last two decades. The paper views semantic change as reflected in neosemanticisms – words developing new meanings due to English influence and pattern takeover. Metaphorisation is the dominant type of meaning change. The set of words under discussion is derived from the Database of Lithuanian Neologisms and then compared with the Latvian counterparts. The process of English-induced meaning change in Latvian and Lithuanian is similar but not identical. Some changes may appear unnecessary, but they exist and warrant thorough documentation and analysis to understand the evolving linguistic landscapes of Latvian and Lithuanian.
This study examines the types and functions of puns posted by the Instagram accounts @punsonly and @dadsaysjokes, which share humorous wordplay with a wide audience. While puns combine humor, wit, and linguistic creativity, their use in social media has received limited scholarly attention. Data were collected and analyzed using an interactive model consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. From the 27 puns in the accounts (17 from @punsonly and 10 from @dadsaysjokes), four types of puns were found: homophonic puns (12 instances), homonymic puns (10 instances), paronymic puns (3 instances), and homographic puns (2 instances). In terms of function, three primary purposes emerged: humorous and sarcastic (13 puns), aesthetic (8 puns), and persuasive (6 puns). These functions contribute to the depth and layered meanings of the texts, influencing how readers perceive and interpret the content. The puns are not only a form of playful language but also a means of engaging the audience through humor, creativity, and subtle messaging. In conclusion, the use of puns in this Instagram account reflects the linguistic creativity of the authors and demonstrates how wordplay can be employed effectively to entertain, persuade, and aesthetically enhance digital communication.
Serving as the global lingua franca, English plays a key role in the formation and transformation of identity across cultures. This article examines the use of English in texts written by members of the Latvian diaspora from the 20th to the 21st century, employing a combination of corpus analysis and discourse analysis. The goal of the present study was to compare the texts in different modalities and observe the salient features of Latvian identity in English texts. The texts analysed include a variety of Latvian diaspora blogs, Agate Nesaule’s text on the Latvian diaspora and four different textbooks produced by or for the Latvian diaspora. The preliminary findings suggest that the Latvian diaspora can be found in different parts of the world (Russia, Brazil, Australia, Canada, the UK and the USA), making the Latvian diaspora transnational and multilingual, often integrating the host and heritage languages into the English texts, which contain references in the form of Latvian proper names and family names. The analysis of Latvian language textbooks shows the use of proper nouns as a means of gaining access to Latvian cultural identity and constructing a multilingual identity.
