Jackendoff (1983, 1990, 1996) categorizes Extension (e.g. The sidewalk goes around the tree.) and Orientation (e.g. The sign points to Philadelphia.) as State. However, there are some similarities between these types and Motion (e.g. John ran into the house.), which contains GOAL and Path, and is categorized as Event. This means that it is more appropriate to treat Extension and Orientation as Event instead of State. Four semantic tests were conducted: (1) what happened test, (2) the simple present test, (3) perception verb complement test, and (4) believe-type complement test. The results of these tests show that Extension and Orientation have eventivity. This eventivity reflects mental scanning. In our mind, we scan the shape of a long object such as a road and look towards the direction that an object such as a road sign points out. In brief, the movement of our mental eyes is involved in Extension and Orientation. This study concludes that even if they describe static situations, Extension and Orientation should be classified as Event proposition.

This paper will focus on the speech that Boris Johnson, who was Prime Minister at the time, gave to the nation; in the address, Johnson forbid the UK population to go out during the global health crisis that COVID-19 caused. The study will attempt to elucidate, in part by reference to classical rhetoric, what English expressions Johnson used to persuade the people to accept the unprecedented inconveniences of the curfew.

  In this speech, Johnson used different verbs, especially auxiliary verbs, in each content block. In some content blocks, however, he used few verbs, relying instead mostly on nouns to add an appealing rhythmic cadence. In addition, Johnson specifically repeated “stay at home” five times during the speech, treating the phrase as a slogan and placing it in both the introduction and conclusion of the speech for emphasis. In short, he dared to repeat the same phrase without paraphrasing, which is preferred in English, and because the sentences and expressions are plain, the repetition enhanced the sense of urgency in what was a crisis situation. This paper analyzes the particular expressions Johnson used in his risk management speech to clarify how certain phrases can prove more persuasive in times of crisis.

Foreign language learning has always been important, and will be. But will be on what basis? Throughout this article we emphasize the importance of learning a foreign language, especially English in the context of Japan, and we do so not because the world is globalizing but because, as social constructionists would say, reality arises from the linguistic interaction, which requires you to acquire skills for “building” syntactically coherent sentences. One of the things observed in English learning in Japanese universities is that some students lack the intentionality toward the coherence of a sentence, sentences and the whole text. This attitude toward language can be seen in their way of treating pronouns, the definite article, the conjugation of verbs and so on. These are the elements in sentences that have weak stimuli, so learners must pay proactive attention to them. This leads us to conclude that English learning provides us with a valuable opportunity where one can get skills for building syntactically coherent sentences by rectifying the inadequate way of treating the above elements. English learning becomes more important as people lead lives where they need to quickly respond to strong stimuli embedded in linguistic information.