In this chapter we explore a manually annotated subset of data from the corpora studied in this book, which have been analysed to show the presence of narratives as understood by researchers studying this concept. In this narrative study we return to an exploration of differences arising from L1 and cultural background and, inter alia, conclude that cultural background may have an important role to play in the frequency and nature of narrative. In drawing such conclusions, we refer, where appropriate, to existing research on SLA and narrative. Overall, the study suggests that, while there are similarities between L1 and L2 narrative use, there are also differences, some attributable to the learner, others to the task/context in which the data was gathered.

This case concerned the second-degree murder of a child by his mother. The trial court had denied the defendant’s request for the opportunity to present a cultural defense to the jury. She contended that her Chinese heritage and upbringing had impaired her state of mind such that she should not have been found guilty of murder. The court held that the trial court had erred in denying the defense. The opinion concerns the intersectional issues between race and gender in the criminal law setting.

The recipient interview is primarily psycho-educational in nature. The fertility counselor strives to understand the recipients’ family building goals and help them frame their unique “family story.” Preparation for disclosure to the potential child has become increasingly important, due to the technological and genetic impact on donor anonymity and growing openness. Societal changes have brought about expansion in the types of recipients seeking treatment, as well as greater diversity in the cultural background of both donors and recipients. The recent worldwide pandemic has also caused an increase in virtual counseling.Fertility counselors need to be open and flexible while integrating these changes into our work with recipients. Fertility counselors are essential not only at the outset of the recipient journey, but are increasingly seen as a valuable lifelong resource to be consulted at different stages in the experience of being a donor-conceived family.

The notion of common ground entails that prior to a conversation, mutually shared knowledge is available to interlocutors by virtue of the situational context or a shared cultural background. Within linguistic pragmatic theories, recipient design is a determining factor for cooperation in interaction. The socio-cognitive approach to communicative interaction acknowledges the importance of cooperation and common ground but maintains that interlocutors tend to adhere to their individual background knowledge and experience for production and comprehension. The shared knowledge base may therefore not be fully available prior to the exchange but, rather, established dynamically and interactively in the course of the conversation. Discussing internet memes, it will be shown that stable core common ground and dynamic emergent common ground are fundamental assets for the description of contemporary and future phenomena in digital communication. I will argue that internet memes represent a kind of communication where emergent common ground is aspired to rather than resorted to as an emergency solution when core common ground is lacking.

Chapter 4 explores potential sources of audience variation in responses to figurative language, considering issues such as age, gender, need for cognition, and cultural background. It investigates how these sources of variation impact on the understanding and interpretation of figurative messaging. It reports findings from the authors’ own work as well as findings from existing literature in the area. Individual differences are found to shape the ways in which people respond to advertisements containing metaphors in different ways. They are shown to affect the kinds of meanings people perceive in the metaphors, the speed with which they are able to find meaning, and their levels of appreciation of the advertisements. The chapter also explores how individual difference variables interact with one another and with the context in which the advertisements are seen.

Chapter 9 focuses on cross-linguistic and cross-cultural variation in embodied metaphor. It looks at how embodied metaphors are experienced differently by people who speak different languages. It also discusses whether, and if so how, speaking a second language affects the way in which one experiences embodied metaphor in that language. It explores the issue of whether the strength to which a metaphorical relationship is embodied predicts the likelihood that it will be universal.