This paper investigates whether and how the disclosure tone of earnings conference calls predicts future stock price crash risk. Using US public firms’ conference call transcripts from 2010 to 2015, we find that firms with less optimistic tone of year-end conference calls experience higher stock price crash risk in the following year. Additional analyses reveal that the predictive power of tone is more pronounced among firms with better information environment and lower managerial equity incentives, suggesting that extrinsic motivations for truthful (...) disclosure partially explain the predictive power of conference call tone. Our results shed light on the long-term information role of conference call tone by exploring the setting of extreme future downside risk, when managers have conflicting incentives either to unethically manipulate disclosure tone to hide bad news or to engage in ethical and truthful communication. (shrink)

This paper features a critical review of the bookPoliteness and Audience Response in Chinese-English Subtitling. A brief introduction of the book’s content is given first, followed by a critical appraisal on merits and loopholes in the book. Furthermore, some interdisciplinary amendments — based on House’s comprehensive politeness theory and Lakoff’s embodiment concept — are put forward to remedy the loopholes in question. It is argued that covert translation works better in subtitling for it is compatible with different social norms at (...) the micro level and universally explanative politeness maxims at the macro level. Another issue discussed in this paper is the pretextual influence on audience interpretation. Pretextual influence — or embodiment system which we render more pertinent in cognitive interpretation practice — can barely be mitigated in the audience’s interpretation. Given the audience’s potential misunderstanding derived from access to various pretextual experiences, the translator may as well transfer the right implications underneath paralinguistic behaviors to the subtitling in domesticalized terms. (shrink)

The study of sand bodies and coalbeds that formed during strong events is conducive to understand the relationship between source rocks and reservoirs. Two sets of Late Paleozoic coal-bearing sequences including the Late Carboniferous Taiyuan Formation and Early Permian Shanxi Formation, with an accumulated thickness of more than a half wavelength, were deposited in the Hangjinqi region on the northern margin of the Ordos Basin. These strata appear as two peaks and two troughs, three peaks and three troughs in the (...) 3D seismic data. We analyzed this coal-bearing seismic response through a combination of well-data statistical analysis, the establishment of forward modeling, and the creation of crossplots. The coal-seam thicknesses of the Taiyuan and Shanxi Formations and the spacing between the two sets of coal indicate the major roles in the merging and bifurcation of events. The formation of three peaks and three troughs requires that the thicknesses of the two sets of coal are greater than 2 m. The spacing between the two sets of coal must also exceed 10 m with a detectable lateral extension, which would otherwise generate two peaks and two troughs. The two peaks and two troughs indicate a combined relationship between the thin sandstones at the bottom of the Shanxi Formation and the thick coalbeds in the Taiyuan and Shanxi Formations. The three peaks and three troughs suggest a combined relationship between the thick sandstones at the bottom of the Shanxi Formation and the thin coalbeds in the Taiyuan and Shanxi Formations. The drilling results clarified that the well situated at the two peaks and two troughs regions is accompanied by higher gas productivity, revealing that the coal-seam thickness has a significant influence on gas accumulation. The presence of two peaks and two troughs indicates favorability for natural gas exploration. (shrink)

The study of sand bodies and coalbeds that formed during strong events is conducive to understand the relationship between source rocks and reservoirs. Two sets of Late Paleozoic coal-bearing sequences including the Late Carboniferous Taiyuan Formation and Early Permian Shanxi Formation, with an accumulated thickness of more than a half wavelength, were deposited in the Hangjinqi region on the northern margin of the Ordos Basin. These strata appear as two peaks and two troughs, three peaks and three troughs in the (...) 3D seismic data. We analyzed this coal-bearing seismic response through a combination of well-data statistical analysis, the establishment of forward modeling, and the creation of crossplots. The coal-seam thicknesses of the Taiyuan and Shanxi Formations and the spacing between the two sets of coal indicate the major roles in the merging and bifurcation of events. The formation of three peaks and three troughs requires that the thicknesses of the two sets of coal are greater than 2 m. The spacing between the two sets of coal must also exceed 10 m with a detectable lateral extension, which would otherwise generate two peaks and two troughs. The two peaks and two troughs indicate a combined relationship between the thin sandstones at the bottom of the Shanxi Formation and the thick coalbeds in the Taiyuan and Shanxi Formations. The three peaks and three troughs suggest a combined relationship between the thick sandstones at the bottom of the Shanxi Formation and the thin coalbeds in the Taiyuan and Shanxi Formations. The drilling results clarified that the well situated at the two peaks and two troughs regions is accompanied by higher gas productivity, revealing that the coal-seam thickness has a significant influence on gas accumulation. The presence of two peaks and two troughs indicates favorability for natural gas exploration. (shrink)