Sofie Decock
Biographic Data
| ID | 243228 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Sofie Decock |
| GIVEN NAMES | Sofie |
| FAMILY NAME | Decock |
| SIGNATURE | DECOCK S |
| AFFILIATIONS | Ghent University |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-5147-9336 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 18 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 47 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 18 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2017 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 4 |
The Potential of Aikido in Intercultural Business Communication Training: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Embodied Pedagogy
Background: Experiential approaches are gaining recognition in intercultural business communication training. However, aikido's potential as an experiential method remains underexplored. Purpose : This study investigates the assumption that incorporating aikido movements into intercultural business communication training leads to learning gains and increased satisfaction. Method: Using a longitudinal mixed-methods approach, we trained 73 particip…
Comprehensibility of gender-fair language among foreign language learners of German: An experimental study
In public and academic debates, the gender star has been criticized for potentially hindering text comprehensibility and imposing an additional burden on learners of German by complicating an already complex language. We investigated in an experiment whether the use of the gender star (e.g., Student * innen) complicates text comprehensibility compared to masculine generics for learners of German. Participants were 80 Flemish students studying Ger…
Beyond She and He: A Framework for Studying the Cognitive, Psychological and Social Effects of Gender-Neutral Pronouns
In recent years, gender-neutral pronouns have emerged in different languages. We review current research on their emergence and offer an interdisciplinary framework for studying and understanding gender-neutral pronouns. Our framework is aimed at sparking and guiding interdisciplinary research on gender-neutral pronouns. The framework incorporates (cross-)linguistic and cognitive aspects of the function, use and processing of gender-neutral prono…
The Comprehensibility and Appreciation of Non-Binary Pronouns in Newspaper Reporting. The Case of Hen and Die in Dutch
This paper examines the effect of the recently introduced Dutch non-binary 3rd person pronouns hen and die on tesssxt comprehensibility and text appreciation in the context of newspaper reporting on non-binary persons. Moreover, it presents a first measurement of Flemish people’s familiarity with and attitudes towards this pronominal reform in Dutch in its early stage. In a survey experiment we compared the use of non-binary hen and die (both com…
A unique blend of interpersonal and transactional strategies in English email responses to customer complaints in a B2C setting: A move analysis
The impact of linguistic choices and (para-)linguistic markers on the perception of Twitter complaints by other customers: An experimental approach
This paper addresses how the realizations of different constitutive components of Twitter complaints shape the perception of these complaints by other customers. We present three experiments on French language in which we test how customer complaint perception is impacted by the realization of the complainable (Exp. 1), of the entity responsible for the complainable (Exp. 2), and of the customer’s wish for the complainable to be remedied (Exp. 3)…
Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints
To date, there has been little attention for the factors that influence the perception of online complaints. We present two experiments in which we test the impact of the degree of linguistic (in)directness and the formal realization of complaint components on complaint perception. Our experimental stimuli are designed on the basis of French-language authentic Twitter complaints which have been coded in terms of the presence of four constitutive …
The message is clear”: An L1 business perspective on non-target-like formulaic expressions in L2 German
This study examines how non-target-like formulaic expressions used by advanced second language (L2) speakers of German are perceived by first language (L1) German business professionals in an intercultural workplace setting. By using an experimental design, we explore how L1 business professionals ( N = 84) perceive the appropriateness and acceptability of the non-target-like expressions as well as how they perceive the communicative competence o…
Discursive approaches to webcare: A closer look at apologies, conversational human voice, legitimation, and emotion regulation
Person- versus content-oriented approaches in English and German email responses to customer complaints: A cross-cultural analysis of moves and first-person pronouns
This cross-cultural study examines the differences in communicative styles between English and German email responses to customer complaints by analysing their discourse structure (through a rhetorical move analysis) and the frequency of first-person references ( I and we and their different forms). The framework is given by House (House, Juliane. 2006. Communicative styles in English and German. European Journal of English Studies 10(3). 249–267…
Exploring the impact of platforms' affordances on the expression of negativity in online hotel reviews
Linguistic (in)directness in twitter complaints: A contrastive analysis of railway complaint interactions
Can you send us a PM please?” Service recovery interactions on social media from the perspective of organizational legitimacy
Shifting multilingual strategies in a Flemish public healthcare service
This paper addresses the challenges service providers are facing amidst growing ethnolinguistic diversity in a neoliberal climate. We focus on the public service provider Kind & Gezin (K&G), the agency that monitors the wellbeing of young children on behalf of the Flemish authorities in Belgium. We demonstrate that the organisation has taken various multilingual measures that go against the government’s preference for monolingual service provisio…
Professional discourse in multilingual settings: Policies and practices
Reactions to Brexit in images: A multimodal content analysis of shared visual content on Flickr
In this article, the authors analyze citizens’ reactions to Brexit on social media after the referendum results by performing a content analysis of 5877 posts collected from the social media platform Flickr, written in English, German, French, Spanish or Italian. Their research aims to answer the three following questions: What multimodal practices are adopted by citizens when they react to societal events like Brexit? To what extent do these pra…
(In)directness and complaints: A reassessment
Customer complaints and disagreements in a multilingual business environment. A discursive-pragmatic analysis
This paper probes into authentic CMC business complaints and disagreements by offering a discourse-pragmatic analysis of complaint negotiation e-mails written by French- and German-language customers. The analysis focuses on an identification and description of complaint and disagreement strategies, and on the presence of internal and external modifiers. Our data, gathered ethnographically at the sales department of a Belgian multinational, shows…
(In)directness and complaints: A reassessment
Linguistic (in)directness in twitter complaints: A contrastive analysis of railway complaint interactions
Customer complaints and disagreements in a multilingual business environment. A discursive-pragmatic analysis
This paper probes into authentic CMC business complaints and disagreements by offering a discourse-pragmatic analysis of complaint negotiation e-mails written by French- and German-language customers. The analysis focuses on an identification and description of complaint and disagreement strategies, and on the presence of internal and external modifiers. Our data, gathered ethnographically at the sales department of a Belgian multinational, shows…
Exploring the impact of platforms' affordances on the expression of negativity in online hotel reviews
Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints
To date, there has been little attention for the factors that influence the perception of online complaints. We present two experiments in which we test the impact of the degree of linguistic (in)directness and the formal realization of complaint components on complaint perception. Our experimental stimuli are designed on the basis of French-language authentic Twitter complaints which have been coded in terms of the presence of four constitutive …
The impact of linguistic choices and (para-)linguistic markers on the perception of Twitter complaints by other customers: An experimental approach
This paper addresses how the realizations of different constitutive components of Twitter complaints shape the perception of these complaints by other customers. We present three experiments on French language in which we test how customer complaint perception is impacted by the realization of the complainable (Exp. 1), of the entity responsible for the complainable (Exp. 2), and of the customer’s wish for the complainable to be remedied (Exp. 3)…
The message is clear”: An L1 business perspective on non-target-like formulaic expressions in L2 German
This study examines how non-target-like formulaic expressions used by advanced second language (L2) speakers of German are perceived by first language (L1) German business professionals in an intercultural workplace setting. By using an experimental design, we explore how L1 business professionals ( N = 84) perceive the appropriateness and acceptability of the non-target-like expressions as well as how they perceive the communicative competence o…
Person- versus content-oriented approaches in English and German email responses to customer complaints: A cross-cultural analysis of moves and first-person pronouns
This cross-cultural study examines the differences in communicative styles between English and German email responses to customer complaints by analysing their discourse structure (through a rhetorical move analysis) and the frequency of first-person references ( I and we and their different forms). The framework is given by House (House, Juliane. 2006. Communicative styles in English and German. European Journal of English Studies 10(3). 249–267…
Can you send us a PM please?” Service recovery interactions on social media from the perspective of organizational legitimacy
Discursive approaches to webcare: A closer look at apologies, conversational human voice, legitimation, and emotion regulation
Reactions to Brexit in images: A multimodal content analysis of shared visual content on Flickr
In this article, the authors analyze citizens’ reactions to Brexit on social media after the referendum results by performing a content analysis of 5877 posts collected from the social media platform Flickr, written in English, German, French, Spanish or Italian. Their research aims to answer the three following questions: What multimodal practices are adopted by citizens when they react to societal events like Brexit? To what extent do these pra…
Customer complaints and disagreements in a multilingual business environment. A discursive-pragmatic analysis
This paper probes into authentic CMC business complaints and disagreements by offering a discourse-pragmatic analysis of complaint negotiation e-mails written by French- and German-language customers. The analysis focuses on an identification and description of complaint and disagreement strategies, and on the presence of internal and external modifiers. Our data, gathered ethnographically at the sales department of a Belgian multinational, shows…
Shifting multilingual strategies in a Flemish public healthcare service
This paper addresses the challenges service providers are facing amidst growing ethnolinguistic diversity in a neoliberal climate. We focus on the public service provider Kind & Gezin (K&G), the agency that monitors the wellbeing of young children on behalf of the Flemish authorities in Belgium. We demonstrate that the organisation has taken various multilingual measures that go against the government’s preference for monolingual service provisio…
Professional discourse in multilingual settings: Policies and practices
Reactions to Brexit in images: A multimodal content analysis of shared visual content on Flickr
In this article, the authors analyze citizens’ reactions to Brexit on social media after the referendum results by performing a content analysis of 5877 posts collected from the social media platform Flickr, written in English, German, French, Spanish or Italian. Their research aims to answer the three following questions: What multimodal practices are adopted by citizens when they react to societal events like Brexit? To what extent do these pra…
(In)directness and complaints: A reassessment
Can you send us a PM please?” Service recovery interactions on social media from the perspective of organizational legitimacy
Discursive approaches to webcare: A closer look at apologies, conversational human voice, legitimation, and emotion regulation
Person- versus content-oriented approaches in English and German email responses to customer complaints: A cross-cultural analysis of moves and first-person pronouns
This cross-cultural study examines the differences in communicative styles between English and German email responses to customer complaints by analysing their discourse structure (through a rhetorical move analysis) and the frequency of first-person references ( I and we and their different forms). The framework is given by House (House, Juliane. 2006. Communicative styles in English and German. European Journal of English Studies 10(3). 249–267…
Exploring the impact of platforms' affordances on the expression of negativity in online hotel reviews
Linguistic (in)directness in twitter complaints: A contrastive analysis of railway complaint interactions
A unique blend of interpersonal and transactional strategies in English email responses to customer complaints in a B2C setting: A move analysis
The impact of linguistic choices and (para-)linguistic markers on the perception of Twitter complaints by other customers: An experimental approach
This paper addresses how the realizations of different constitutive components of Twitter complaints shape the perception of these complaints by other customers. We present three experiments on French language in which we test how customer complaint perception is impacted by the realization of the complainable (Exp. 1), of the entity responsible for the complainable (Exp. 2), and of the customer’s wish for the complainable to be remedied (Exp. 3)…
Experiments into the influence of linguistic (in)directness on perceived face-threat in Twitter complaints
To date, there has been little attention for the factors that influence the perception of online complaints. We present two experiments in which we test the impact of the degree of linguistic (in)directness and the formal realization of complaint components on complaint perception. Our experimental stimuli are designed on the basis of French-language authentic Twitter complaints which have been coded in terms of the presence of four constitutive …
The message is clear”: An L1 business perspective on non-target-like formulaic expressions in L2 German
This study examines how non-target-like formulaic expressions used by advanced second language (L2) speakers of German are perceived by first language (L1) German business professionals in an intercultural workplace setting. By using an experimental design, we explore how L1 business professionals ( N = 84) perceive the appropriateness and acceptability of the non-target-like expressions as well as how they perceive the communicative competence o…
The Comprehensibility and Appreciation of Non-Binary Pronouns in Newspaper Reporting. The Case of Hen and Die in Dutch
This paper examines the effect of the recently introduced Dutch non-binary 3rd person pronouns hen and die on tesssxt comprehensibility and text appreciation in the context of newspaper reporting on non-binary persons. Moreover, it presents a first measurement of Flemish people’s familiarity with and attitudes towards this pronominal reform in Dutch in its early stage. In a survey experiment we compared the use of non-binary hen and die (both com…
Beyond She and He: A Framework for Studying the Cognitive, Psychological and Social Effects of Gender-Neutral Pronouns
In recent years, gender-neutral pronouns have emerged in different languages. We review current research on their emergence and offer an interdisciplinary framework for studying and understanding gender-neutral pronouns. Our framework is aimed at sparking and guiding interdisciplinary research on gender-neutral pronouns. The framework incorporates (cross-)linguistic and cognitive aspects of the function, use and processing of gender-neutral prono…
The Potential of Aikido in Intercultural Business Communication Training: A Mixed-Methods Analysis of Embodied Pedagogy
Background: Experiential approaches are gaining recognition in intercultural business communication training. However, aikido's potential as an experiential method remains underexplored. Purpose : This study investigates the assumption that incorporating aikido movements into intercultural business communication training leads to learning gains and increased satisfaction. Method: Using a longitudinal mixed-methods approach, we trained 73 particip…
Comprehensibility of gender-fair language among foreign language learners of German: An experimental study
In public and academic debates, the gender star has been criticized for potentially hindering text comprehensibility and imposing an additional burden on learners of German by complicating an already complex language. We investigated in an experiment whether the use of the gender star (e.g., Student * innen) complicates text comprehensibility compared to masculine generics for learners of German. Participants were 80 Flemish students studying Ger…
Linguistics (13 works) · Psychology (12 works) · Social Psychology (12 works) · Political science (11 works) · Language, Discourse, Communication Strategies (9 works) · Social Psychology (9 works) · Business (8 works) · Sociology (8 works) · Complaint (7 works) · Law (6 works)