<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Conceptual integration theory, proposed by Fauconnier and Turner in 1993, has been successfully used in the study of a wide range of phenomena of human thought and action, from counterfactuals to metaphors, proving blending to be present in the simplest kinds of human thinking. In that sense, conceptual integration theory has emerged as a powerful theory that can account for a wide variety of linguistic and non-linguistic phenomena. Therefore, it is not surprising that conceptual integration theory has found its application in the study of advertising. Advertising requires both conscious and subconscious mental interpretation of the hidden messages. The primary objective of this paper is to show that conceptual integration theory is equipped with the mechanisms that can explain the construction of the meaning of text-image advertisements. Specifically, analyzing several text-image advertisements in women’s magazines, this paper attempts to explore to what extent hidden cognitive mechanisms involved in the interpretation of advertising can be explained using the postulates of conceptual integration theory.</abstract>

What is advertising without blending? Advertisements in women’s magazines

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Readers of Croatian daily newspapers and news websites are very frequently faced with Croatian phrases which have been modelled on English templates by literal, word-for-word translation, a phenomenon known as <sc>calque</sc>. This research shows that even highly proficient Croatian speakers of English as a second language (L2) are sometimes not able to fully understand the calques used in Croatian mass media unless they are familiar with the meaning of their source template in English. The research is done by way of an experiment built in <italic>PsychoPy</italic> (<xref ref-type="bibr" rid="j_exell-2017-0005_ref_020_w2aab3b7b1b1b6b1ab1ac20Aa">Pierce, 2007</xref>). The implications of this research could be of special interest to persons involved in designing media texts, professional and student translators, as well as to mass media consumers.</abstract>

Metaphor-based calques in Croatian mass media

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">English is taught as a foreign language in elementary and high schools in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BIH). However, since the number of English classes per week is very limited they should be utilized in the best possible way to produce proficient users of English. Nowadays, when language proficiency is viewed as one’s ability to speak and write in the target language and not about it, the need for the proficiency evaluation in schools arises. The present study attempts to shed a spot of light on this issue, investigating two very common ways of assessing students’ knowledge in schools, namely tests and writing assignments. Hence, through the interviews with English teachers and the analysis of students’ tests and writing assignments, the current paper explores the ways in which these two measures are realized, the tasks they consist of, the type of linguistic knowledge they are used to evaluate, their levels of difficulty, and the type of corrective feedback teachers provide on both of them. The results suggest that teachers on both measure rather students’ explicit than their implicit knowledge, focusing much more on accuracy than fluency development.</abstract>

The assessment of Bosnian EFL learners’ knowledge by two different measures: test and writing assignment

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">This study aims to identify the main cross-linguistic criteria for compoundhood discussed in the relevant literature, with a special focus on English, ranking them from the most reliable to the least. These criteria - orthographic, phonological, syntactic and semantic in nature - have been proposed to make a distinction between compounds and phrases. The analysis reveals that the most reliable cross-linguistic criteria to distinguish between phrases and compounds are adjacency and referentiality. With regard to the former criterion, no intervening elements can be inserted between the head and the non-head of compounds, whilst such insertion is allowed in phrases. With regard to the latter criterion, the non-head of a phrase is always referential, whereas the non-head of a compound is normally non-referential. Other criteria have been found to be partially applicable, e.g. free pluralisation of the non-head, compositionality, stress, possibilities for modification and coordination, ellipsis, orthography and the replacement of the second element by a pro-form. The study also proposes a definition for compounds that may be the most widely applicable. Finally, the study concludes with ranking the main criteria for compoundhood discussed in the study.</abstract>

What is a compound? The main criteria for compoundhood

AHEAD OF PRINT

Volume 11 (2023): Issue 2 (December 2023)

Volume 11 (2023): Issue 1 (October 2023)

Volume 10 (2022): Issue 2 (December 2022)

Volume 10 (2022): Issue 1 (October 2022)

Volume 9 (2021): Issue 2 (December 2021)

Volume 9 (2021): Issue 1 (October 2021)

Volume 8 (2020): Issue 2 (December 2020)

Volume 8 (2020): Issue 1 (December 2020)

Volume 7 (2019): Issue 2 (December 2019)

Volume 7 (2019): Issue 1 (October 2019)

Volume 6 (2018): Issue 2 (December 2018)

Volume 6 (2018): Issue 1 (October 2018)

Volume 5 (2017): Issue 2 (December 2017)

Volume 5 (2017): Issue 1 (October 2017)

Volume 4 (2016): Issue 2 (December 2016)

Volume 4 (2016): Issue 1 (October 2016)

Volume 3 (2015): Issue 2 (December 2015)

Volume 3 (2015): Issue 1 (October 2015)

Volume 2 (2014): Issue 2 (December 2014)

Volume 2 (2014): Issue 1 (October 2014)

ExELL

 ExELL (Explorations in English Language and Linguistics) is an international peer-reviewed electronic journal, published as a joint project of the School of English Studies of the University Josip Juraj Strossmayer Osijek, Croatia and English Language and Literature Department of Tuzla University from Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The aim of the journal is to promote and facilitate academic exchange in English theoretical and applied linguistics. Our mission is to provide a linguistics journal based on data drawn from the English language that would reflect a wide range of interests and opinions. We want to create opportunities for scholarly communication by encouraging the dissemination of theoretical and research-informed insights using the Internet as a medium in order to make linguistics accessible to the widest possible audience.  The journal offers a wide range of theoretical, methodological, and educational approaches to English. We encourage submission of various topics about the English language and　 linguistics, such as: theoretical and descriptive approaches to English, synchronic and diachronic variability of English, cognitive approaches to English, discourse analysis, corpus linguistics, contrastive linguistics, applied linguistics, ELT/TEFL/ESP, second language acquisition, translation studies, the structure of contemporary varieties of English (phonology, morphology, syntax and semantics) and other topics related to exploration of English language and linguistics.  The journal is interested in papers which focus on defining new problems for the study of the English language and linguistics, providing new insights into the known problems and developing new methodologies to approach old and new problems.  The journal does not have article processing charges (APCs) nor article submission charges.  Archiving  Sciendo archives the contents of this journal in Portico - digital long-term preservation service of scholarly books, journals and collections.  Plagiarism Policy  The editorial board is participating in a growing community of Similarity Check System's users in order to ensure that the content published is original and trustworthy. Similarity Check is a medium that allows for comprehensive manuscripts screening, aimed to eliminate plagiarism and provide a high standard and quality peer-review process. 