Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional Discourse
The fast and consistent progress in DNA research has lead us to vent the possibility that bragging about one’s own genetic endowment is bound to become a linguistic practice with economic and social entailments. The family resemblance approach (Kleiber 1999) was used to shape what we dubbed here “ge...
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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LED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto
2018-07-01
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| Series: | Lingue Culture Mediazioni |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/article/view/1338 |
| _version_ | 1818214825607561216 |
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| author | Sergio Pizziconi Walter Giordano Laura Di Ferrante |
| author_facet | Sergio Pizziconi Walter Giordano Laura Di Ferrante |
| author_sort | Sergio Pizziconi |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | The fast and consistent progress in DNA research has lead us to vent the possibility that bragging about one’s own genetic endowment is bound to become a linguistic practice with economic and social entailments. The family resemblance approach (Kleiber 1999) was used to shape what we dubbed here “genetic bragging” in a prototypical perspective to the definition of speech acts. Our assumption is that the “genealogical bragging” in the pre-DNA-testing era is to be considered the closest resembling linguistic practice to draw upon to realize DNA-based bragging. We have collected an ad hoc corpus of fictional and non-fictional texts with instances of bragging about alleged inherent differences between human beings. The texts include 18th and 19th century natural science investigations, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and science-fiction movie Gattaca to identify major strategies of bragging. We have finally supported our hypothesis by looking at two communicative fields. On the one hand, we accounted for the way governments are regulating the use DNA-testing in the insurance industry; on the other hand, we reported a few instances of recent political discourse in which genetic bragging has been used. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-12T06:26:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-32921f0b2a8d48c9b926a3b514a907ea |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2284-1881 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-12T06:26:20Z |
| publishDate | 2018-07-01 |
| publisher | LED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia Diritto |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Lingue Culture Mediazioni |
| spelling | doaj.art-32921f0b2a8d48c9b926a3b514a907ea2022-12-22T00:34:44ZengLED - Edizioni Universitarie di Lettere Economia DirittoLingue Culture Mediazioni2284-18812018-07-0151577710.7358/lcm-2018-001-pizz1071Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional DiscourseSergio PizziconiWalter GiordanoLaura Di FerranteThe fast and consistent progress in DNA research has lead us to vent the possibility that bragging about one’s own genetic endowment is bound to become a linguistic practice with economic and social entailments. The family resemblance approach (Kleiber 1999) was used to shape what we dubbed here “genetic bragging” in a prototypical perspective to the definition of speech acts. Our assumption is that the “genealogical bragging” in the pre-DNA-testing era is to be considered the closest resembling linguistic practice to draw upon to realize DNA-based bragging. We have collected an ad hoc corpus of fictional and non-fictional texts with instances of bragging about alleged inherent differences between human beings. The texts include 18th and 19th century natural science investigations, Hitler’s Mein Kampf, and science-fiction movie Gattaca to identify major strategies of bragging. We have finally supported our hypothesis by looking at two communicative fields. On the one hand, we accounted for the way governments are regulating the use DNA-testing in the insurance industry; on the other hand, we reported a few instances of recent political discourse in which genetic bragging has been used.http://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/article/view/1338family resemblancesgenetic bragginginsurancesprototypicalityspeech act theory |
| spellingShingle | Sergio Pizziconi Walter Giordano Laura Di Ferrante Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional Discourse Lingue Culture Mediazioni family resemblances genetic bragging insurances prototypicality speech act theory |
| title | Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional Discourse |
| title_full | Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional Discourse |
| title_fullStr | Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional Discourse |
| title_full_unstemmed | Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional Discourse |
| title_short | Genetic Bragging as a Speech Act: From Fictional to Non-fictional Discourse |
| title_sort | genetic bragging as a speech act from fictional to non fictional discourse |
| topic | family resemblances genetic bragging insurances prototypicality speech act theory |
| url | http://www.ledonline.it/index.php/LCM-Journal/article/view/1338 |
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