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Abstract
Expressing vagueness is a common phenomenon especially in spoken discourse. The present paper examines vague
language 'sort of' (e.g., kayak gitu) realised in spoken discourse in Indonesian. It accounts for the pragmatic
functions of 'sort of' examined in their discourse context. The data under investigation include a 24-hour corpus of a television
talk-show discussing various social issues. A pragmatic qualitative data analysis is predominantly employed directed towards a
functional analysis of the use of 'sort of'. Descriptive statistics accompany the qualitative analysis to reinforce the
investigation. The quantitative analysis shows that 'sort of' was infrequently used in the context of Indonesian television
discourse. The corpus displays various forms of lexical devices for 'sort of' in Indonesian. The pragmatic analysis shows that
'sort of' was employed as a politeness strategy to tone down strong linguistic expressions and to save the speaker's positive
face. The infrequent use of 'sort of' in the discourse type under investigation in this study reinforces the notion that 'sort of'
is a feature of informal interaction.

Worlds in Common? examines the newly emerging forms of language used in satellite television programmes, exploring a wide range of genres including twenty-four hour news broadcasting, culture channels, talk shows, local TV and European news. Focusing on the experiences of British and German viewers, the authors discuss these new forms of communication brought about by the technological and economic upheavals in Europe in the late 1990s. This interaction between media theories and media discourses, makes the book highly relevant for researchers in media and cultural studies as well as linguisti

The article discusses the functioning of accentuators (means of emphasis) in political tele-vision discourse and their core-periphery distinction. Accentuators are defined as language, speech, and non-verbal means that accentuate fragments of speech being the most significant from the author's point of view. An accentuator is recognized as core or peripheral depending on two factors: its being intended for semantic emphasis and the frequency of its use in a specific type of speech. Core accentuators are divided into three groups. The center of the core of the accentuation category includes the most emphasis-targeted and frequent means of emphasis –logical and emphatic sentence stress as well as gestural stress (baton gestures). Less emphasis-targeted core units are represented by lexical-semantic emphasis, hypophora, a performative utter-ance, inversion, an emblematic gesture 'attention', and expressive vocabulary. Core units that are least in-tended for emphasis include lexical repetitions, some modal particles, and adverbs of degree and measure. Peripheral means of emphasis are language, speech, and non-verbal units that are contextual and occasional. They are divided into two groups: the close periphery (introductory and parenthetical constructions, illustra-tive gestures, some modal particles, emblematic gestures, parallel syntax, direct and free indirect speech, some facial expressions, etc.) and the far periphery (comparatives, pauses, interjections, some structures of a complex sentence and supra-phrasal units, etc.). The research reveals some significant regularities in the use of accentuators: there are patterns of compatibility of their certain types; the usage frequency of accentuators depends on functional and semantic types of speech or the personal characteristics of communicants.

How do Americans acquire the impression that their political foes have some understandable basis for their views, and thus represent a legitimate opposition? How do they come to believe that reasonable people may disagree on any given political controversy? Given that few people talk regularly to those of opposing perspectives, some theorize that mass media, and television in particular, serve as an important source of exposure to the rationales for oppositional views. A series of experimental studies suggests that television does, indeed, have the capacity to encourage greater awareness of oppositional perspectives. However, common characteristics of televised political discourse—incivility and close-up camera perspectives—cause audiences to view oppositional perspectives as less legitimate than they would have otherwise. I discuss the broader implications of these findings for assessments of the impact of television on the political process, and for the perspective that televised political discourse provides on oppositional political views.

Abstract
This article examines the ways in which symbolic English is used in fashion and mass media by indexing ideologies and expectations regarding language ability in Japan. One example of this is the popularity of English language T-shirts in Japan. Using English that is often widely criticized for being awkward or meaningless, these T-shirts are now often mocked in various media sources due to the increased flow of images across traditional nation-state boundaries. By examining the use of these English T-shirts in a Japanese variety show featuring a teen idol known for having English language ability this paper will show how the symbolic value of English T-shirts in Japan can be used to construct a hierarchy based on language ability within Japanese society and how television programs that use such items, take advantage of linguistic inability to increase embarrassment and stake for people heightening linguistic anxiety while at the same time discursively constructing the show and its staff in a positive light. This article examines this phenomenon and the ways in which these fashion items are then appropriated and denaturalized for entertainment both within and outside Japan through forms of mass-media such as television programs, books, and websites.

The rise of satellite and cable across Europe during the late 1980s contributed to the restructuring of communications spaces that had previously been dominated by national broadcasters. These changes were viewed with concern by many media commentators. Summarising the debate in 1989, David Morley and Kevin Robins noted that 'it is broadly felt that these new technologies have disturbing and damaging implications for established national (and indeed continental) identities. There is a common fear of both their potential to disaggregate fixed national audiences and communities and to create new ones across national boundaries' (Morley and Robins, 1989: 11). It seems likely that digital broadcasting will further fragment national audiences, not least because it provides for an even greater emphasis on the type of 'niche' programming associated with satellite and cable (Richardson and Meinhof, 1999: 87). Public service broadcasters are faced with the challenge of retaining audiences for generalist programming, while transnational competitors can operate largely outside the limits of national regulation and orient their programming towards the most lucrative markets. In the Irish context, the troubled development of digital services has occasioned a renewed legislative and critical focus on the role of public service broadcasting in articulating national and cultural identity. But it is also possible to trace the 'textualisation' of new relations between broadcasters and national audiences (Richardson and Meinhof, 1999: 10). This paper adopts a textual approach to the analysis of Radio Telefis Éireann (RTÉ) during this transitional period. The focus of the analysis is RTÉ's discursive framework, which encompasses graphic ephemera such as station idents, logos, lead-ins and trailers, as well as other aspects of scheduling, continuity and branding. This paper also considers the wider context for these shifts in orientation, by exploring television's 're-imagination' of Europe and the Web.