The Popularization of Ancient Culture on websites: a Comparison between English / Italian Accounts of Byzantine Sites.

In this study, the language of popularization and persuasion is analysed in relation to a website illustrating a place of great historical and cultural interest. In order to trace the cognitive and communicative strategies, the most recurring linguistic devices such as the use of rhetorical figures and linguistic connotations related to emotionality were highlighted. To the same end, we examine the crucial role of ELF (English as a Lingua Franca), analyzed here as a communicative tool (in the functions of explanation and persuasion) between non-native speakers and, therefore, considered as a conceptual and emotional leverage in the various cognitive and communicative dimensions of the message.