Language Linguistics

This paper explores the theory of lexical knowledge set forth in the Module-Attribute Representation of Verbal Semantics (Biq 2000) and extends its scope to include issues concerning verbal polysemy. Previous versions of the theory postulated that different event structures required sense distinctions. In examining corpora data for the verbs 'put' and 'set' we argue that an additional criterion for 'sense'

This paper examines the ways in which language sounds with a masculine or feminine emotional character convey meaning and structure in Kurt Schwitters' expressive non-verbal poem the Ursonate. Schwitters emphasized the importance of sounds and the Merz (multi-modal) nature of art. The emotional character of sounds is associated with their physical qualities (e.g., frequency), their emotional associations, and the muscle movements involved in enunciating them: it was quantified, in this research, on the basis of emotional associations. Masculine consonants (e.g., r, t, p, g) predominate within the poem whose themes, segments, and movements are characterized by different combinations of masculine and feminine consonants and vowels. Performances of the Ursonate indicate the importance of expressive force in its rendition and masculine consonants allow for a forceful recitation.

Paragraphs are the building blocks of essays. A sound knowledge of paragraph structuring leads to well-written and readable essays. On the contrary, a lack of paragraph writing skills culminates into a farrago of ideas scattered haphazardly in the essay, thereby affecting paragraph unity and coherence, which in turn impacts negatively on the packaging of ideas in the essay. This study has been prompted by my observation over the years of paragraph construction difficulties polytechnic students face in their academic writing, and also the paucity of research in polytechnic writing. As a result, this paper set to investigate how students structure their paragraphs in terms of topic sentence use and support sentences. A corpus of 120 essays was collected from four departments in Kumasi Polytechnic, Kumasi, Ghana and using Bain's paragraph principles as a benchmark to analyse them, the results revealed that 66% of the essays employed definite paragraph format. The study also found numerous one-sentence paragraphs leading to the creation of indentations, with reckless abandon. The results of the study have implications for the teaching of writing skills in polytechnics.

It is widely believed that understanding a language does not only entail knowledge of phonology, grammar and vocabulary, but it also requires one to have information about certain features of the culture of that language (Cakir, 2006). There are various views regarding the importance of culture in language teaching. The aim of this paper is to discuss whether teaching language automatically entails teaching culture or not. To answer this question, the relationship between language and culture is first examined by referring to various views in literature. Then, teaching language and culture is explained by drawing on different points of view. This study uses a theoretical approach to review relevant literature on the topic and present different arguments for and against teaching language and culture.

Today, varieties of the Malay language are spoken by more than two hundred million people, mostly in Indonesia and Malaysia. Also, more than one hundred million people speak Persian dialects in Iran, Afghanistan, and Tajikistan. Throughout centuries, Malay has been influenced by other languages such as Arabic, Dutch, Portuguese, and English. Likewise, Persian has borrowed many vocabularies from Arabic and European languages. Since words are one of the most important elements in mastering any language, a concise classification of the common Persian and Malay words has vast pedagogical implications. In this study, more than 1000 Malay words that were recited to 64 Iranian university students on various occasions were recognized by them to be almost completely homophonic to Persian words. Most of these common terms were then classified into five main categories the biggest of which is those words which have exactly the same meaning, and almost identical pronunciation.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the cultural dimension of foreign language education, and teachers today are expected to promote the acquisition of intercultural competence in their learners. Thus, the present study aimed to investigate the opinions and attitudes of Iranian teachers of English on intercultural competence teaching and to see how and to what extent these opinions and attitudes are reflected in their classroom application data were selected from 50 EFL teachers by mean of questionnaire. The questionnaire consisted of four parts that investigate the teachers' attitudes and opinions. Date for present study, which was descriptive. Two statistics were used, if so, one sample t-test can be used, otherwise the chi-square test can applicable. The result of one sample t-test revealed that language teachers seem to be aware of the role of the culture in foreign language education though they do not often integrate culture into their teaching in order to develop intercultural competence in their learners. In overall, Iranian EFL teachers had positive attitude toward teaching culture in the classroom.

Since the early 1980s, cochlear implantation has been an approved method for treating profound bilateral sensorineural hearing loss in children. It is widely believed that the use of this device would significantly benefit young deaf children's development of speech and ability to participate in aural–oral communication. However, whereas significant improvement in speech reception and perception skills following implantation has been widely documented, cochlear prostheses as speech production aids have been studied less extensively. The main objective of this article is to review the work conducted on speech produced by prelingually deaf children following cochlear implantation. Cochlear implants and their functioning are described, as are the cognitive, social and clinical factors known to play a role in successful implantation of children. It is concluded that cochlear implantation may speed up speech production to near normal rates, but initial delays are not totally reversible. In addition, the variability in all performance measures is high, and the reasons for good and poor outcomes are only partly understood.

The purpose of this study is to examine thematic structure in the translations of Edgar Allan Poe's The Black Cat, The TellTale Heart and Virginia Woolf's A Haunted House. Meaning in Gothic literary works is closely associated with word order. The study aims at discussing the problems arising from the differences between English and Arabic in the degree of reliance on thematic structure. The study shows how markedness, topicalization and focus are considered as possible problems of literary translation from English into Arabic. The study utilizes Thematic Structure Theory to analyze the marked sentences in the translations of these literary texts.

Language Teaching (CLT). It has linguistic, philosophical and pedagogical bases, as well; however, its theories of learning are more fundamental than those of language. TBLT focuses on language itself, language acquisition and language performance, simultaneously. It is learner centered and promotes learners' confidence and enthusiasm. Tasks are of paramount importance since they facilitate learning and teaching activities. Even novice teachers who can engage learners in communication can handle such a class. The teacher is expected to be open minded and creative. Pair work, group work and teacher tailored tasks are done in classes. TBLT has all the four major skills within its domain and language is used in order to be learnt. Such being the case, it trains autonomous learners who can use English outside the classroom in real life circumstances. Learners are involved in classroom assessments and negotiation of meaning which increase teachers' and learners' awareness of learning and test taking strategies, respectively.

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the cultural dimension of foreign language education, and teachers today are expected to promote the acquisition of intercultural competence in their learners. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the opinions and ...

Previous studies of the lexical aspect of verbs following Vendler (1967) cannot account for verbs of degree achievements . Building on recent studies on "scale structure" (Hay et al. 1999, Rappaport Hovav & Levin 2010, among others). We introduce a new aspectual feature [±scale] into the traditional Vendler system in order to more comprehensively account for a wider range of verbs. By analyzing verbs/verbal compounds from Mandarin Chinese and following the scalar approach, we propose six aspectual classes that are needed not only to adequately accommodate degree achievements, but also to provide a fuller account of all the verbs. This scalar approach can be applied to the aspectual classification of natural languages in general. * We are very grateful to Beth Levin for her insightful comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

This article analyzes image schemas in Hafez sonnets. After studying the sonnets, some verses chosen selectively then, analyzed descriptively and analytically, based on some image schemas mentioned by Johnson (1987). Image schemas are conceptual structures derived from physical experiences, cultural background and ideology of a nation. All human beings based on their unique characteristics have access to a universal collection of image schemas, such as containment, path and force schemas. But, culturally image schemas are represented differently in languages. This fact considered by Lakoff in forming conceptual metaphors and cultural differences in Metaphors We Live By. Obviously, poem is rhymed words and suitable to image conceptual structures such as metaphors and image schemas. It is essential to mention that conceptual structures mentioned are not just used in poetry but, in everyday language as well. Here‚ some sonnets by Hafez are analyzed as the corpus of this article.

This study reviews extended uses of nominalization constructions in a wide range of Asian languages. It combines typological and diachronic perspectives, and traces how nominalization constructions over time develop from referential to non-referential uses. The latter include modifying functions (e.g. relativization and adverbialization); in some cases, nominalization constructions further develop into finite clauses, and sometimes are reanalyzed as stand-alone constructions with mirative, evidential, epistemic, attitudinal, or other speaker mood ⁄ stance interpretations. These developments form part of a general tendency for versatile constructions to extend from proposition-based uses to grammatical and pragmatic uses (a la Traugott , 1995. This review, in particular, focuses on semantic extensions within and beyond the nominal domain, with the latter extensions involving reanalyses in functions whereby nominalization constructions drift from referent identification to event predication and the expression of speaker's stance.

Motivation in second language learning is an important factor that should be never ignored, it requires much attention for second language learning and teaching to be successful, the students should be motivated and the teacher needs to employ teaching methods that motivate the students in acquiring their target language. This research was conducted at the University of Zimbabwe Confucius Institute which is the main center for teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture in Zimbabwe and concluded that students who are motivated are easy to teach and can perform better without much assistance from the instructor. The paper discusses the role played by motivation in the acquiring of second language, which is Chinese language, and the impact it has in improving the target language by students. Usually the teaching methods and criteria used by the teachers to reward or motivate the students are the ones which determine the students’ performance in the second language learning. ...

Research in the area of intercultural competences has become increasingly popular. Scholars have been developing theoretical models for acquiring and evaluating intercultural competences, looking for connections between interdisciplinary subjects, and researching developments of intercultural competences in foreign relations, immigration, politics, education, commerce and health care. When new models are developed, they must be tested in diverse contexts in order to validate them and determine their intercultural relevance. This paper not only introduces several models of intercultural communication but also presents an overview of the studies performed on them, analyses their strengths and weaknesses and makes suggestions for further research. Developmental Model of Intercultural Maturity, Bennett's (1993) Developmental Model of Intercultural Sensitivity, Gullahorn and Gullahorn's (1963) W Model of Acculturation and Re-acculturation and Lysgaard's (1955) U Curve Hypothesis" are addressed and results testing the models are presented here.

Language is a reflection of culture, and the role of culture in learning a language can't be ruled out. We usually communicate, what culture offers us. Every speech community has a scope for languages other than their native language, but it varies from culture to culture or language to language. Some languages can easily accommodate while other languages while some fail to do so due to their concord or discord at different linguistic levels, and socio-cultural acceptance. This research focuses on the socio cultural aspects of Jazan as a hindrance to learning the English language for the students of Jazan University.

This paper aimed at providing an overview on the post-cognitivist approach of embodiment theory. In the first section, a summary of the main tenets of the traditional cognitive theory are provided. Following the pros and cons of traditional cognitive theory, section two introduces the new trend in the field of cognitive science, i.e. the embodied cognitive approach. Then the main features and claims of embodiment theory are presented in section three. In sections four and five the confusions over the issue of embodiment and different types of embodiment are presented correspondingly, following a final conclusion section.

Although morphological innovations are usually regarded as important in reconstructing the histories of language families, relatively little attention has been paid to the reconstruction of Proto Austronesian (PAn) verbal morphology, and this paper aims to take a step in this direction. Morphological classes of verbs have been reconstructed for several Formosan languages, and this paper offers a preliminary reconstruction of PAn verb classes, examines the challenges inherent in that reconstruction and offers tentative responses to them. The final section takes a brief look at how the reconstruction of PAn verb classes permits the establishment of morphological innovations and casts light on the subgrouping of Austronesian languages.

There is quite a longstanding convention whereby Formosan languages (the Austronesian languages of Taiwan) are described using a framework and terminology developed by linguists working on the Austronesian languages of the Philippines. Linguists using this terminology talk, for example, about the 'focus system' of verbal constructions and about the 'topic' of the clause. Because this terminology is (i) unfamiliar to linguists working outside Taiwan and the Philippines and (ii) deficient in certain respects (it is often unclear, for example, what the function of the 'topic' is), descriptions of Formosan and Philippine languages using this terminology are sometimes somewhat opaque and rather difficult for other linguists to read.

Learning Chinese as a second language is a hot and rising issue all around the world. Although the teaching and learning of Chinese as a second language is getting a lot of support from the Chinese government， through the establishment of Confucius Institutes which are aimed at the spreading and the promotion of Chinese language and culture. The spreading of Chinese language and culture is still facing a lot of challenges due to cultural differences. If the teaching and learning of Chinese language is to going develop, there is need to establish new teaching frameworks, teaching methods and approaches which can accommodate and promote culture learning in the Chinese language classes. This paper is aimed at exploring the importance of culture in second language learning, drawing examples from the teaching and learning of Chinese language and culture in Zimbabwe. Language and culture are inseparable, language is the carrier of culture and a mirror to reflect the culture. It is through language that culture is passed from the generation to generation. Without culture, language is like a tree without roots, it cannot stand, the same is with culture without language, It cannot survive. In second language learning and teaching it is important for the language teachers to understand the culture of the students and it's more important for the students to understand the culture of their target language. Chinese language is rich with culture, the expressions, grammar, characters, idioms and everything in Chinese language has a cultural connotation and meaning which if not taught well, it brings misunderstandings and a lot of problems. New teaching frameworks and approaches should be established basing on the differences that exist between the two cultures.

agreed that classifiers are closely related to categorization. In Malay, it has been suggested that the classifier buah is able to classify things that do not have definite types and shapes. Its classification of varied and seemingly dissimilar nouns raises the question of whether buah is a general classifier. By analyzing nouns classified by buah in Standard Malay from a collection of 5,009 news articles in Malaysia, consisting of over a million words, this paper argues that buah not only has a semantic function but also serves a cultural role. This paper also investigates the connection between the different senses of buah and shows that its senses are often metaphorically linked to 'products' (e.g. products of artifacts, products of telecommunication, products of nature, products of thoughts, etc.). Through a corpus-based analysis, we discern the meanings of buah and further postulate two possible mechanisms for its selection, a result that eliminates the status of buah as a general classifier.

The present study is done to examine the effect of chunk learning on students' listening comprehension. Based on the nature of the study, the null hypothesis was proposed, chunk learning has no effect on (TOEFL) listening comprehension. In order to test the null hypothesis, a sample of 60 students was chosen. They were randomly put into two groups (experimental and control). Members of each group were randomly assigned to one of the following conditions; first the experimental group was given the same passages containing multiword in the passages of experimental group and the control group that we did not give them any passages in multiword. The design used for this study was a quasi experimental one. An English Language Test was administered at the beginning to ensure the homogeneity of the two groups in language proficiency. Then a pre-test was done to measure the student's knowledge of multi words. After the treatment which took 20 sessions,30 minutes per session, the same pre-test was administered as a post-test to measure the effect of the treatment. Analysis of the calculated normality test (K-S), descriptive statistic of pre-test, paired sample t-test and independent sample t-test for experimental and control group provided us with the judgment to reject the null hypothesis. In other words, the result revealed that: chunk learning (multi words, verbs idioms and collocations) has a significant effect on listening comprehension ability.

Metaphors in the film Butterfly Lovers are examined within the framework of Mental Spaces Theory (Fauconnier 1994, 1997, Fauconnier & Turner 2002), illustrating how context in discourse plays an important role in the interpretation of metaphor. We propose that metaphorical interpretations in Butterfly Lovers result from conceptual blending (partial cross-space mappings). In addition, we demonstrate how the Optimization of presupposition obstructs the metaphorical interpretation and how the Upward Floating of presupposition reinterprets the same context from literal meaning into metaphorical meaning.

Meaning defines language because it is the internal function of language. At the same time, meaning does not exist unless in language and because of language. From the point of view of the speaking subject meaning is contents of conscience. From the point of view of a language, meaning is the objectification of knowledge in linguistic signs. And from the point of view of the individual speaking subject, meaning is the expressive intentional purpose to say something.

In many multilingual nations of the world, the multiplicity of indigenous languages and cultures makes the choice of a national language for the purpose of sustainable development difficult. This paper considers the media as major sources and vehicles for development through the choice and use of appropriate language. The English language, which has transformed from its initial status of a foreign language (EFL), has since assumed the status of a second language (ESL) in many former British colonies, of which Nigeria is one, and so fits the bill as the language of wider communication (LWC). This paper shows how English can be used effectively in the mass media of communications to galvanize the populace into participating in national development, through the adoption of a level of language intelligible to the majority of the people who are consumers of mass media products through reading information as news published in the mass media. The paper considers English as used in many developing multilingual nations of the world as ideal for the purpose of mass communication for sutainable national development. Without an indigenous language as a vehicle for national integration and development in many developing multilingual nations, the one language available which is English, can be properly adopted and domesticated in the various mass media of communications to achieve national integration and development in a mutually intelligible form among all consumers of mass media products from across the various ethnic divides. The paper believes the English to be used is not the one that appeals to the Queen of England or to native speakers, but alienates the people for whom it is written. It should rather be the domesticated version of the English language that is simple enough but not a representation of linguistic errors.That version of English should reflect the local nuances of the environment that the language has found itself, since we can only speak the English that we can naturally speak.

This study discusses the incorporation of thinking strategies of high order in teaching in general and in the teaching of theoretical texts in particular. The main goal of the paper is to discuss the difficulties of teaching theoretical texts to students, but also present teachers with a tool kit when facing these difficulties. The present study lays the foundations for the teaching of a theoretical text, and suggests an efficient teaching method that will allow students to fully and thoroughly understand a text. Higher Order Thinking is considered to be an ambiguous meta-term. There are several approaches for the classification of thinking levels, the earliest common is Bloom's taxonomy of learning domains starting from the simplest to the most complex: knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis and evaluation. Hanna & Michaelis were the first to understand Bloom's original aim but suggested a different scale, starting with low order thinking to higher order thinking in the following manner: observing, remembering, explanation/interpretation, comparison, classification, generalization, conclusion, analysis, synthesis, raising hypothesis, prediction and evaluation (Hanna &Michaelis). Based on Bloom's taxonomy, Newman differentiates between Higher Order Thinking and Lower Order Thinking arguing that Higher Order Thinking is "complex and challenges the learner into interpretation process, analysis and engagement with information", while lower order thinking includes basic skills of collecting information and its classification (Newman, 1990). Passig suggests yet another adaptation to Bloom's taxonomy, adding a seventh level, melioration, that is: "[T]he skill to choose the appropriate aggregate of information, and to implement it in solving problems in different situations, times and places, thus meliorating the aggregate" (Passig, 2001).

English sentences beginning with there, also called English there-constructions, do not constitute only existential sentences; most important among their other uses are presentational there-constructions. It is almost impossible to distinguish existential sentences beginning with Empty there, which is not stressed and has no lexical meaning, from presentational thereconstructions beginning with Locative there, which is pronounced with some degree of stress and has its denotative meaning as opposite to that of the adverb here. Therefore, language users have to care for other sentence components, both obligatory and optional, that follow there in the clause in question. Comparing English there-constructions and their Vietnamese counterparts helps to identify translated versions of each subtype of English there-constructions, both semantically and pragmatically equivalent, irrespective of the fact that Vietnamese has neither the empty subject nor subject-verb inversion-the two phenomena quite easily observed in a Subject-prominent language like English.

The author argues that in addition to the three series of stops commonly reconstructed (voiceless unaspirated; voiceless aspirated; voiced), Old Chinese possessed three prenasalized series, in which the prenasal element was a prefix N-. This prefix changed transitive verbs to intransitives, voicing a voiceless unaspirated obstruent root initial in the process. Prenasalization later disappeared, leaving behind the well-known Middle Chinese alternation between transitive verbs with voiceless obstruent initials and intransitive verbs with voiced obstruent initials. Voicing, however, occurred only if the root initial was a voiceless unaspirated obstruent: prenasalized voiceless aspirated initials were not affected: they evolved to Middle Chinese aspirated stops. A chronology of phonetic changes is proposed. Evidence from early Chinese loans to Miao-Yao is discussed. The intransitive N- prefix is shown to correspond to intransitive nasal prefixes in various Tibeto-Burman languages; while the connection to Written Tibetan a-ch’ung, also a nasal prefix, is regarded as spurious on functional grounds. It is proposed that the intransitive nasal prefixes in Sino-Tibetan languages go back to a proto-Sino-Tibetan intransitive m- prefix. The formal and functional similarity between intransitive voicing in Middle Chinese and the alternation known as “alternation of root initial” in Tibeto-Burman languages, which likewises contrasts transitive verbs with voiceless initials and intransitive verbs with voiced initials, raises the issue of the origin of this alternation in the Tibeto-Burman languages: considering that the Chinese alternation has turned out to have its origin in a nasal prefix, is the same also true of the Tibeto-Burman alternation? The question is for the moment left open.

Many Sinitic languages respect low vowel raising (LVR) whereby the low vowel /a/ is raised to /e/ only when flanked by a palatal glide and a coronal coda. In this article, I show that LVR in Sinitic languages is a genuine process of grammar because low-level phonetic coarticulatory effects alone cannot account for crosslinguistic/ dialectal variation. Specifically, my survey reveals that vowel duration, onset consonants and/or the presence of retroflexes may have a direct bearing on LVR, thus calling for a phonological analysis. I argue that the phenomenon in question is better treated as additive effects of (i) target undershoot in the wake of impoverished vowel duration (i.e. vowel reduction) and (ii) contextual influences (i.e. backness assimilation). Phonological vowel quality change (LVR here) is motivated only when the benefit of contextual neutralization exceeds that of the sum of the ”cost” of implementing the above coarticulatory patterns. Analytically, Flemming's (2003...

The concept of social deixis and its definition are stated by different scholars. Among these some are stated in this article in order to introduce the concept of social deixis to the reader. In the language, social deixis is expressed by both relational and absolute deictic terms.Relationaldeictic terms: age, marriage, circumcision status, and kinship are important constituents to show social deixis in the language.In Hadiyya, absolute deictic terms:office-related respect and mahaaraano 'people who have socio-cultural respect'are also used to show social deixis.

Abstract: Learning a foreign or second language at different levels of proficiency involves the acquisition of a great number of words. Language learners look for effective ways to increase opportunities for retaining new words in long-term memory, but forgetting is a common problem. Language learners often complain that they forget new words soon. The importance of vocabulary learning also poses some challenges for teachers. They like to know in what ways instructional programs might foster the acquisition of so many words. Students face some barriers when they try to assign the vocabularies to their long term memories. In this paper, learners ’ problems in vocabulary learning are elaborated on and some guidelines are offered to ameliorate or even to remove them. In so doing, it introduces language learning strategies that make vocabulary learning interesting and easy for learners. It also familiarizes teachers with useful techniques and activities for presentation. Ideas and viewp...

Proposing many new cognate sets and building on many decades of his own previous research, Matisoff (2003) represents a major contribution to Tibeto-Burman linguistics. Unfortunately, Matisoff's use of Tibetan is marred by errors of fact and analysis, which together undermine confidence in his reconstructions.

This paper describes an experiment on the production of handshape change in Taiwan Sign Language using the implicit priming experimental paradigm . The results not only provide new evidence that phonological form plays an important role in sign production, but also that the time course of sign production closely matches that predicted by a prominent model of spoken word production ). The experiment further highlights important methodological considerations in the study of phonological production, not only for sign language, but for spoken language as well. for help choosing the response time measure, Chen Jenn-yeu for advice on the implicit priming paradigm, Wang Wenling for help designing the experimental program, Tsao Hsiu-chien for help running the experiment, and the audience at the International Symposium on Taiwan Sign Language Linguistics for comments. I am also indebted to feedback from the two reviewers, in particular David Corina, who did not wish to remain anonymous. The research was funded by National Science Council grant NSC 91-2411-H-194-002. 1 Stokoe (1960 introduced the term cherology (cher = hand) for this interface system in sign languages, but linguists eventually realized there was no need to be tied to the etymology of the term phonology ("study of sound"), any more than etymology determines the synchronic use of linguistic nomenclature like morphology ("study of shape") and syntax ("arranging together").

On the basis of a detailed study of the relativization phenomena in the dialects of Sasak and Sumbawa in eastern Indonesia, this paper shows that the two crucial assumptions made by Keenan & Comrie on Western Malayo-Polynesian languages are untenable. That is, the Topic in these languages cannot be reinterpreted as Subject and that Austronesian non-Actor focus constructions cannot be considered passive. Both Sasak and Sumbawa, just like Standard Indonesian and other Western Malayo-Polynesian and Formosan languages, have two privileged but distinct grammatical relations Topic and Subject, and the fact that the Topic is most accessible to relativi-zation in these languages falsifies Comrie & Keenan’s claim that “in absolute terms Subjects are the most relativizable of NP’s ” (Comrie & Keenan 1979:653). The pronoun-retention strategy in Sasak and Sumbawa also falsifies their other universal: “All RC strategies must operate on a continuous segment of the AH” (p.661). The paper concludes...

This paper discusses the syntax of the Chinese non-referential ta 'it' as it occurs after the verb in haohao-de he ta liang-bei 'Drink two cups' or shui ta yi huir 'Sleep for a while'. After presenting the problems of three previous analyses (the ditransitive, AgrOP, and VP proform analyses), we argue that the non-referential ta is an indefinite determiner clitic which is the head of DP and is adjoined to its preceding verb. Such an analysis not only better accounts for the Chinese data but also has an important implication with respect to Uriagereka's (1995) observation about the specificity of clitics in general and their relation to Diesing's (1992) Mapping Hypothesis.

There is quite a longstanding convention whereby Formosan languages (the Austronesian languages of Taiwan) are described using a framework and terminology developed by linguists working on the Austronesian languages of the Philippines. Linguists using this terminology talk, for example, about the 'focus system' of verbal constructions and about the 'topic' of the clause. Because this terminology is (i) unfamiliar to linguists working outside Taiwan and the Philippines and (ii) deficient in certain respects (it is often unclear, for example, what the function of the 'topic' is), descriptions of Formosan and Philippine languages using this terminology are sometimes somewhat opaque and rather difficult for other linguists to read. In this paper we attempt to re-frame the description of certain aspects of the morphosyntax of Formosan languages in terms more familiar to typologists and to linguists working in other parts of the world. Among other things, the notio...

Since the 1960s, Western Europe has been host to a large Turkish immigrant community. While many such communities shift to the majority language in the space of a few generations, language maintenance is remarkably successful in this community. This is partially because of continuing immigration, but it is also typical of a transnational identity that characterizes many bilingual communities in modern Europe. The linguistic effects of this ongoing contact situation include extensive codeswitching and slowly emerging changes in the lexicon and syntax. These are contained in a range of speech styles that show that in such modern migrant communities, the way in which different subgroups utilize their multilingual repertoire varies considerably, depending on background factors such as gender, locality, age, and socio-political identity.

In the field of task-based language teaching, sequencing tasks is of substantial importance. One of the proposals for sequencing tasks is cognitive task complexity. Robinson, as one of the proponents of sequencing tasks based on cognitive task complexity, distinguishes between three factors of: task complexity (i.e. the intrinsic cognitive demands of the task), task conditions (i.e. features of tasks which are determined by the situational setting and conditions in which they take place), and task difficulty (i.e. learners' perceptions of the demands made by the task and the resources that learners bring to the task). After presentation of Robinson's cognitive task complexity model, there has been a great deal of research which has investigated the influences of the components of this model on the three dimensions of performance including accuracy, fluency, and complexity. The present paper is a brief review of the studies that have been conducted in this respect.

Linguists often classify languages into various types. In generative phonology, language typology is usually translated into parameters, such as the parameter for trochaic vs. iambic feet, or the parameter for syllable counting vs. mora counting. Focusing on the typology of tone and non-tone languages, I argue that the typological or parametric approach has four problems. First, it does not offer a clear-cut classification. Second, it does not capture similarities between different language types. Third, it does not capture differences within a given language type. Fourth, it does not offer a good guide for research. As an alternative, I offer a theory in which there is no typology or parameters. Instead, languages differ in their selection of various phonological inventories (vowel inventory, consonant inventory, tonal inventory, etc.). Each inventory selection has a specific set of properties, and the interactions among various inventory selections give the overall properties of a...

Meaning defines language because it is the internal function of language. At the same time, meaning does not exist unless in language and because of language. From the point of view of the speaking subject meaning is contents of conscience. From the point of view of a language, meaning is the objectification of knowledge in linguistic signs. And from the point of view of the individual speaking subject, meaning is the expressive intentional purpose to say something.

The concept of social deixis and its definition are stated by different scholars. Among these some are stated in this article in order to introduce the concept of social deixis to the reader. In the language, social deixis is expressed by both relational and absolute deictic terms.Relationaldeictic terms: age, marriage, circumcision status, and kinship are important constituents to show social deixis in the language.In Hadiyya, absolute deictic terms:office-related respect and mahaaraano 'people who have socio-cultural respect'are also used to show social deixis.

This article aims to study the applicability of Steiner hermeneutic motions in Colman Barks translation of Essential Rumi. At first, it introduces hermeneutic motions suggested by George Steiner which include initiative trust, aggression, embodiment and restitution; then studies Coleman Barks 'Translation of Rumi according to Steiner' s hermeneutic motion. This article shows that Barks 'translation is applicable in Steiner' hermeneutic motion. He could pass the first three motions but he fails in the fourth motion and did not meet the fidelity principle in his work. The author suggests that it is better to call his work as aversion but not atranslation.

Linguists often classify languages into various types. In generative phonology, language typology is usually translated into parameters, such as the parameter for trochaic vs. iambic feet, or the parameter for syllable counting vs. mora counting. Focusing on the typology of tone and non-tone languages, I argue that the typological or parametric approach has four problems. First, it does not offer a clear-cut classification. Second, it does not capture similarities between different language types. Third, it does not capture differences within a given language type. Fourth, it does not offer a good guide for research. As an alternative, I offer a theory in which there is no typology or parameters. Instead, languages differ in their selection of various phonological inventories (vowel inventory, consonant inventory, tonal inventory, etc.). Each inventory selection has a specific set of properties, and the interactions among various inventory selections give the overall properties of a given language. The present theory is simpler, offers a better guide for research, and offers a better understanding of language differences and language universals.

3 Decades of lexical ambiguity research has rigorously studied effects of relative sense frequency on sense disambiguation in biased contexts, while fundamental semantic issues such as distinction of different types of ambiguities, or influences from lexical meanings' semantic nature (e.g., literal or metaphorical) as well as these meanings' degrees of conventionalization, have received less attention. In particular, while previous experimental works tend to focus on stimuli having dominant concrete meanings, a large amount of words having dominant abstract meanings are overlooked. This study focused on lexemes that contain related literal and metaphorical senses (i.e., metaphorical polysemies) in Mandarin Chinese, and examined meaning activation patterns of literal-dominant lexemes (having dominant literal senses and subordinate metaphorical senses, e.g., 廢物 fèiwù 'waste; a good-for-nothing') and metaphor-dominant lexemes (having dominant metaphorical senses and sub...

Seediq is a Formosan language belonging to the Atayalic subgroup . This paper reports a (morpho-)phonological process called dorsal consonant harmony found in the language with the data based on the Truku dialect. Two contrastive segments-voiceless velar stop /k/ and voiceless uvular stop /q/-are involved, and the latter is derived in morphophonemic contexts. This process operates not only between morpheme boundaries, but also within morpheme roots, showing that the */k…q/ sequence is unattested, and only very few /q…k/ sequences are found. However, with the introduction of a rule which changes labials to velars in word-final position, this root-internal restriction is gradually loosened (cf. Li 1980). An observation of the data also reveals that heteromorphemic alternation of dorsal consonant harmony involves both derivational and inflectional prefixes; hence it is controlled by fixed right-to-left directionality. Theoretically speaking, this assimilation process is considered as a non-local correspondence rather than a spreading of the dorsal feature [high] or [retracted tongue root] (cf. Hansson 2001), since the intervening oral segments are transparent to the operation without any opacity effect, i.e. the intervening vowels are lowered only if immediately adjacent to a uvular. A theoretical interpretation is provided following the model of contrastive hierarchy in phonology and feature specifications of both segments, suggesting that the segment /q/ in this language possesses double domination in both oral and pharyngeal cavities, thus enforcing the harmony of a hetero-morphemic /k/ in order to ease production difficulties. A similar morpheme-internal harmony is also mentioned in other Atayalic dialects such as Squliq and Skikun . A diachronic implication gained from this observation is that dorsal consonant harmony is probably a pan-Atayalic phenomenon.