Subscribing to Systemic Functional Linguistics approach, this paper examines aspects of decontextualised language, such as classification and definitions, in Greek preschool instructional contexts. Following the assumption that such decontextualised uses are considered critical to the transition from commonsense to educational knowledge, we attempt a lexicogrammatical analysis of taxonomic meanings occurring in these educational settings. The analysis of instances of classroom discourse in terms of identifying and attributive clauses has shown that classification and definitions, conceived as critical for educational knowledge development, seem to be a reiterated pattern by which teachers recontextualise commonsense meanings into educational knowledge. Different lexicogrammatical realisations of categorisation and definitions with respect to their meaning potentiality are discussed, and evidence of variation in lexicogrammatical choices regarding the continuum from common to uncommon experience is also illustrated. Another point worth mentioning is that social/abstract entities tend to be categorised and/or defined through saying verbs, while physical/ concrete entities through being verbs. This variation appears to be a tendency in reproducing the paradigmatic distinction between physical and social science which characterises actual school discourse from very early school age.

Purpose-Acknowledging the important role of the media in shaping a European public sphere, the purpose of this paper is to explore how the recent economic crisis is discursively construed in the context of the British media discourse. It investigates discursive constructions of the economic crisis in two political magazines of different ideological positioning by placing emphasis on the economic crisis in Greece, the "weak link" of the Eurozone. Design/methodology/approach-The study draws on systemic functional linguistics which views language as social semiotic and conducts a transitivity analysis of a corpus consisting of 59 articles (a total of 61,820 words) from two weekly British political magazines, one of conservative and one of centre-left political position. The analysis is assisted by Wordsmith 6.0 concordance corpus tool. Findings-It is argued that the articles of the conservative magazine construe the crisis as primarily local and financial, discussing its effects on the British economy. On the other hand, the articles of the centre-left magazine view the crisis as a systemic one derived from and, at the same time, affecting European Union policies and stress its political and economic implications in all of Eurozone. Originality/value-The findings of the study contribute to the body of studies which investigate the role of language in the construction of the economic crisis and also adds to the ongoing discussion regarding the development of a European public sphere as part of the wider European Project and the process of European integration.

Subscribing to Systemic Functional Linguistics approach, this paper examines aspects of decontextualised language, such as classification and definitions, in Greek preschool instructional contexts. Following the assumption that such decontextualised uses are considered critical to the transition from commonsense to educational knowledge, we attempt a lexicogrammatical analysis of taxonomic meanings occurring in these educational settings. The analysis of instances of classroom discourse in terms of identifying and attributive clauses has shown that classification and definitions, conceived as critical for educational knowledge development, seem to be a reiterated pattern by which teachers recontextualise commonsense meanings into educational knowledge. Different lexicogrammatical realisations of categorisation and definitions with respect to their meaning potentiality are discussed, and evidence of variation in lexicogrammatical choices regarding the continuum from common to uncommon experience is also illustrated. Another point worth mentioning is that social/abstract entities tend to be categorised and/or defined through saying verbs, while physical/ concrete entities through being verbs. This variation appears to be a tendency in reproducing the paradigmatic distinction between physical and social science which characterises actual school discourse from very early school age.

This study explores media discourses and representations of Greece and Europe in the Greek press in the context of the recent socio-economic crisis. While several studies have explored the representation of Greece in the international press, very few have investigated the discursive construction of crisis in the Greek press. Theoretically and methodologically, the study draws on the tradition of critical discourse analysis, which it combines with corpus linguistics tools. The employed methodology is qualitative and interpretative in nature and attempts an analysis of media texts at a discoursal and grammatical level. The analysis is both synchronic and diachronic, following the development of the crisis through two newspapers, Kathimerini and Ta Nea, at different phases of the crisis.

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