Today, communication frequently takes place between individuals and institutions representing different national and cultural backgrounds. Furthermore, technical development has issued advances in online communication increasing multidimensional forms of information transfer. This has resulted in a vast body of theoretical discussion on the relation between language, culture and discourse, within the realm of empirical research on intercultural encounters. The volume is a collection of papers written by scholars from Poland, Taiwan, Germany and the Netherlands who have agreed to bring their perspectives into ever changing field of communication studies. The purpose of the work is to present discourse functional and pragmatic analysis of social communication, with reference to translation, social science, corpus and cognitive linguistics, working with both traditional and new media data.

Contents:

Barbara Lewandowska Tomaszczyk (Lodz International Studies Academy, University of Lodz): Blurring the boundaries: A Model of Online Computer- Mediated Communication Activities (OCA)

Louis Wei-lun Lu and Lily I-wen Su (National Taiwan University): Antonymous polysemy: The case of –shang in Mandarin

Jerzy Tomaszczyk (Lodz Academy of International Studies): Repetition of conceptual content/reformulation and lexical borrowing

Łukasz Bogucki (Lodz International Studies Academy, University of Lodz): Taking Stock in Audiovisual Translation

Adam Bednarek (Lodz International Studies Academy, University of Lodz): Localization and Translation in Cross Cultural Environments: Issues of Website Localization

Elżbieta Jendrych (Kozminski University): Do Companies Need Routine in Business Communication?

Halina Wisniewska (Kozminski University): Written business discourse in lingua franca: a pedagogical perspective

Tatiana Szczygłowska (ATH Bielsko-Biała, Poland): The persuasive nature of letters to the editor: The case of deontic attitudinal meanings expressed by Polish and English writers

Dorota Biadala (Universität Heidelberg): Die Korpuslinguistik und der Sprachgebrauch in einer theoretischen Betrachtung unter Berücksichtigung der Kernbegriffe einer Diskursanalyse

Agata Blichewicz (Radboud Univeristy, The Netherlands): Pragmatic functions of the ‘purse hand’ shape in everyday Greek discourse

Anna Pałczyńska (University of Lodz, Poland): Generic Usage of Nouns and Pronouns in Selected English, German and Polish EU Documents