Tanju Deveci   

Abstracts in research articles (RAs) serve a critical role in summarizing key findings and capturing readers' interest. However, linguistic strategies employed in abstracts can vary significantly based on authors' linguistic and cultural backgrounds. Accordingly, this study investigates differences in relative clause usage and abstract length between Anglophone and Turkish non-Anglophone authors in education research article abstracts (RAAs). Using a corpus of 106 RAAs, with 56 authored by Anglophones and 50 by Turkish non-Anglophones, descriptive statistics and log-likelihood (LL) analysis were applied to examine these linguistic features. Findings reveal that Turkish authors tend to produce slightly longer RAAs, although with greater variability, likely influenced by inconsistent journal guidelines. In contrast, Anglophone authors use relative clauses more frequently and favor non-reduced forms significantly more than their Turkish counterparts, reflecting differing syntactic preferences and stylistic conventions. These results underscore the impact of linguistic background on academic writing practices, highlighting the need for targeted interventions to support non-native English-speaking authors in achieving greater clarity and conciseness. Practical implications include the development of instructional resources to enhance the syntactic efficiency of abstracts, which is critical for improving their acceptance in international journals. Limitations of the study, such as the exclusion of multi-authored papers and the focus on unstructured abstracts, suggest avenues for future research.

Li Xiaofei   

Cormac McCarthy's southern novel Child of God sometimes inaccurately falls into the category of "typical pastoral novel". However, a nostalgic interpretation overlooks McCarthy's indifference to discourses of grand history, particularly the southern myth. This paper reinvestigates Ballard's tragedy and hopes to offer some new interpretations with the help of Julia Kristeva's theory of abjection. Kristeva believes that the subjects establish their subjectivity via the abjection of others, but such abjection is in perpetual danger and frequently challenges the subjects' perception of subjectivity. This paper looks into main character's effort to enact the patriarchal order of the old south and reestablish his lost subjectivity by tints of abjection others, and how such practice ended tragically. Ballard's attempt to achieve order through abjection is mainly manifested in his endeavor to a static familial order that encapsulates the hierarchical structure of the Old South. In other words, this paper highlights the incompleteness of abjection. With a detailed depiction of Ballard's changing psyche, McCarthy indicates that the bygone pastoral order is more of a spiritual malady than a comfort. Therefore, this paper affords several new insights to the existing studies. Firstly, it addresses the previous studies' relative oversight of historical discourse's influence on Ballard. It argues that he was not only a scapegoat of the undesirable edge of modernization, but also a victim of the haunted ideology of the old south. Also, it offers a new perspective to see how contemporary southern writers like McCarthy broke the anxiety of influence, deviated from and innovated southern literary traditions.

Yiyi Xie   and Yi Zhang   

This study aims to analyze the distributional features of causal logical grammatical metaphors and their functions in academic discourse construction based on Halliday's theory of grammatical metaphor and Martin's classification of logical grammatical metaphor. The research corpus consists of 30 journal articles randomly selected from The Modern Language Journal between 2018 and 2022. The results showed that: (a) There were a total of 1,005 causal logical grammatical metaphor instances, among which the dominant type was conjunction-as-thing causal logical grammatical metaphor (41.69%); conjunction-as-process (28.16%) was the second dominant type; the types of conjunction-as-quality (16.42%) and conjunction-as-circumstance (13.73%) were not commonly used; and there was a significant difference among different types of causal logical grammatical metaphors (p = .000 < .05). (b) The reasons for the distributional features include the preference of academic discourse for static and immobile language, the extensive use of the ¡°favorite clause type¡± in English scientific writing, the lowest degree of metaphoricity of conjunction-as-circumstance and modifying as the primary function of conjunction-as-quality. (c) Causal logical grammatical metaphors have the functions of making academic language more accurate, rigorous, condensed, and comprehensible, and reducing grammatical complexity and repetition of causal events.

Nobuko Imataki   and Yuichiro Kobayashi   

This study investigated the linguistic features of abstracts across five scientific and technical disciplines: biochemistry, civil engineering, computer and information sciences, electronics engineering, and mechanical engineering. Abstracts play a crucial role in academic papers by summarizing key findings, methodologies, and implications. Through the lens of English for Specific Purposes (ESP) and genre analysis, this study aimed to determine whether linguistic features vary across disciplines and classify these disciplines based on the similarity of their linguistic features. The corpus consisted of 5,000 abstracts, with 1,000 from each discipline, sourced from the open-access journal PLOS ONE. Using Biber's [1] multidimensional analysis framework, this study examined 63 of 67 linguistic features, including passive voice, conjunctions, amplifiers, and discourse markers. Statistical analysis, including correlation and cluster analyses, revealed that the disciplines can be broadly divided into two groups: biochemistry and computer & information sciences, and a second group including mechanical engineering, civil engineering, and electronics engineering. These findings suggest that while some linguistic features are shared across disciplines, others vary substantially. For example, biochemistry has a higher frequency of passive constructions and large noun phrases, whereas computer and information sciences frequently use first-person pronouns and amplifiers. These insights are valuable for ESP instruction as they highlight the need for discipline-specific writing guidance in higher education. Educators can use this information to develop effective writing instruction tailored to the linguistic norms of each field. Future research could expand on these findings by exploring additional rhetorical elements and examining the impact of linguistic features on reader comprehension.

Qian Na   

This study investigates the rhetorical function of Chinese modal particles (MPs) as shown in Liu Xie's Wen Xin Diao Long (¡¶ÎÄÐĵñÁú¡·, ca. 501), through the lens of Kenneth Burke's "identification" theory. While previous research has primarily focused on the semantic and syntactic functions of MPs in ancient Chinese, their rhetorical role remains underexplored. By employing the text analysis tool AntConc v3.5.7, this research identifies "Ò²" (ye), "ÒÓ" (yi), and "·ò" (fu) as the most frequently used MPs in Liu Xie's treatise, with occurrences of 534, 228, and 139, respectively. These particles, when paired with rhetorical figures such as repetition, antithesis, and rhetorical question, create compelling rhythms that greatly enhance reader engagement and facilitate identification with the writer. The analysis reveals that "Ò²" (ye) together with repetition or antithesis effectively creates a rhythm that draws readers into a ready acceptance of the writer's viewpoints. "ÒÓ" (yi), often found in four-character clauses, complements sentences and enhances melody. "·ò" (fu), typically used at the beginning of sentences, conveys the writer's confidence and deeply engages readers, when combined with antithesis or rhetorical question. The findings indicate that these modal particles play a crucial role in creating a rhythmic structure that bridges the gap between the writer and reader, thus strengthening the power of identification. Furthermore, this inquiry not only demonstrates how rhythm serves as a non-verbal means of achieving identification by unawareness, but also offers an innovative approach to studying ancient Chinese texts via Western rhetorical theory. The present research examines only one Chinese classic, which may not fully represent the use of MPs across all ancient Chinese texts. Future studies may investigate varied Chinese classics to explore more of MPs' rhetorical functions.

Huiying Liang   

This study examines Colson Whitehead's novel Zone One to address the following questions: What metaphors concerning cities and zombies does the author employ? What roles do these metaphors assume in shaping the imaginative world? What relationships between urban environments and their inhabitants do these metaphors reflect in the context of the 21st century? How do these metaphors impact readers? Drawing from Critical-spatial Theory and Critical Metaphor Analysis, this paper examines how metaphors enhance the thematic depth of the novel and contribute to the author's political critique through close reading and qualitative assessment. The study's findings show that a literary text has its First-, Second-, and Third-space, wherein the author's strategic use of conceptual metaphors constitutes the Secondspace. Zone One extensively employs conceptual metaphors, each illuminating distinct facets of the city, particularly its mechanization, institutionalization, rationalization, and bureaucratization. These traits serve as lenses through which readers discern the underlying societal forces contributing to the outbreak of the zombie uprising. A binary opposition is established between two metaphorical states: the rigidity of the urban environment and the fluidity of zombies. The latter's metaphorical meaning is concerned with a biochemical weapon attack against racial hierarchy, anti-black violence and the barriers of systemic racism. These metaphors prompt consideration of the confrontation between the living and the dead as a political conflict aroused by racial malady although the novel seems unconcerned with racial issues. Ultimately, these metaphors empower readers to conceptualize, engage in critical reasoning, and grasp abstract concepts, thereby enhancing the literary themes of the post-apocalyptic novel.

Zhong Ying   and Song Yanfang   

The aim of this study is to explore the relationship between the carriage space and the human senses through McEwan's all-around representation of the carriage space in Amsterdam and Solar. The focus of this study is on how McEwan represents carriage space in Amsterdam and Solar from three perspectives: the protagonists' panoramic view, their mechanization of perception, and their deviant and compensatory behavior in the carriage space. Their gaze inside the train and the plane is panoramic visual perception, which lets them feel the creativity of the railway and experience the synthesis philosophy. Although the panoramic view facilitates the grasp of the whole scenery, this perspective is centered on the visual level, and the sensory separation from other senses is inevitable. From a social perspective, the landscape they have seen is homogeneous with the single function. To balance their sensory experience, their respective tactile and taste compensation behaviors compensate for the visual monotony in the carriage space. The study indicates that in the carriage space, the individuals are curled into the mobile carriage space system unconsciously: they are restricted to behavior and mostly the visual sense prevails. Thus, it can be concluded that the visual-based two-dimensional field of view based on the sensory separation in the carriage space is in fact a mechanized perception at the price of destroying local characteristics and historical continuity. It is recommended that the dull experience of speed and disillusionment in enclosed spaces could be alleviated by the sensory compensation or empathy, but after all, the fundamental approach is to reconstruct the atmosphere of the space, enhance the connotation of the landscape, and highlight the regional characteristics of the landscape. The study aims to enrich McEwan's research and provide a new perspective.

Rui Huang   and Cong Zong   

Brother/Sister + Noun is one of the common compound structures in Modern Chinese. This study, using Corpus Linguistics research methods to search the BCC corpus, aims to analyze the number and characteristics of nouns attached to "brother" and "sister" at the same time, to build a co-occurrence network. The study also explores the social and cultural reasons for the differences from the perspective of cultural semantics. It was found that Modern Chinese tends to use the compound structure of "Brother + Noun", and the related constructs are more productive than the compound structure of "Sister + Noun". "Brother" is generally collocated with nouns representing Social Groups, Regional Nationalities, Military, Political, etc., while "Sister" is more commonly associated with nouns of natural organisms, tangible items and tools, reflecting cultural expectations and evaluations of the genders. From a cultural semantics perspective, an analysis of the compound structure "Brother/Sister + Noun" reveals distinct disparities between the terms "Brother" and "Sister" when used in conjunction with a noun. These disparities can be categorized into four factors: the first is the influence of the Confucian notion of gender difference, the second pertains to the existence of the patriarchal society, the third is related to the metaphorical meaning of the distinctiveness of women's fertility, and the fourth is the different gender consciousness brought about by the biological differences between males and females. This study is conducive to understanding the cultural characteristics and gender evaluations implied in language, which contributes to the realization of gender equality in language.

Peiwen Zhang   

Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL) is a multi-perspectival linguistic theory rooted in a theoretical framework that describes, analyzes, interprets, and understands language. SFL studies the relationship between language and its functions in different contexts by regarding language as a semiotic system. This paper provides an overview of the Sydney School genre theory, including key concepts, research methodology, and applications. Register is identified as context of situation. The three variables of register, which are field, tenor and mode, are realized respectively by ideational, interpersonal and textual metafunctions. Genre is identified with the context of culture. The typological genre analysis focuses on difference between genres and highlights genres in terms of their categories. The topological genre analysis focuses on both similarity and difference between genres. The Sydney School genre theory has been applied to literacy education in Australian schools. Genre-based literacy pedagogy was developed as a visible pedagogy, providing learners with explicit knowledge of genre. The three stages of pedagogy of genre-based literacy pedagogy are Deconstruction, Joint Construction, and Independent Construction, with constructing context of genre and acquiring knowledge of field cutting across the whole process. A detailed analysis of recount and exposition genres shows their schematic structures, with typical stages of recount including Orientation, Record of Events, and Reorientation and exposition Thesis, Supporting Arguments, and Reiteration of Thesis. The paper highlights the functions of genre as tools for communicating and understanding social practices and identities. The Sydney School genre analysis expands the study of the complicated relations between language and culture.

Recai Bazancir   

Oral repetition is a distinctive feature of orally transmitted literature, prose, and poetry. However, due to the strong influence of the oral formula theory based on examining the epic in verse, a disproportionate emphasis was placed on verse in formula research and prose expression was ignored. This study is an attempt to systematically examine the formula in Turkish prose narrative (story), which is a mixture of prose and poetry. Prose, which is the dominant part of the story, is told by a minstrel, and the poems sung by the same artist accompanied by saz are sprinkled between them. The data used in this article mainly covers the repertoire of a famous storyteller named M¨¹dami (d. 1968). His stories were recorded on several occasions during his thirty-year career. The first collection was made in 1942, when the treasurer was a young soldier and writer Pertev Boratav. Back then, stories were told and written to a group of officers during the show. In 1956, a few stories of M¨¹dami were recorded by ?lhan Ba?g?z in a room where there was no other audience. The last recording was made in 1967, a year before M¨¹dami's death, in his hometown of Poshof. There the same story was recorded in two real cases: one being read to the town's people in a coffeehouse, the other being told to the town's intellectuals at the Teachers' Association the next evening. Various compiling methods and different mediums gave the opportunity to examine the interaction of the formula with the personality of the narrator, the audience and the social environment. I then checked the preliminary findings with collections of stories recorded by other narrators, story booklets published in Turkey since 1930, and other folklore genres. Among these, there are some written sources such as epics, folk tales, shadow plays, meddah stories, folk poems and early Ottoman history, anecdotes and legends. The study is a compilation study and contains examples of Turkish Minstrel tradition. The stories told by A??k M¨¹dami were conveyed in both Turkish and English. The formulas M¨¹dami used while telling stories were identified and summarized.

Shanjiang Yu   

Due to the impact of global English, theoretical research on the motivation of L2 learning in the past few decades has been dominated by studies involving learning English. Questions need to be asked as to what degree those results apply to the situation relating to other languages, especially non-European languages. Different from conventional studies, this explorative study sets out to investigate people's attitudes towards Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) in the UK through public comments on a major media platform. Among the findings, the majority of comments are negative about CFL and the integrative/ intrinsic dimension is crucial. Language difficulty is not the main reason why people are not studying Chinese as it is widely believed. Among the specific factors, English being the global language is the biggest barrier. Based on this finding, it seems reasonable to argue that, for an emerging regional/ global language like Chinese, more attention should be given to integrative/ intrinsic motivation rather than instrumental benefit. Cultural and social-political factors are also discussed, and suggestions are made for more effective promotion of CFL as well as for other emerging languages.

Cheng Pan   and Yun He   

Animal proverbs, an important part of language, are the summary of life experience among countries, which were fully endowed with national and cultural features. The differences in history, culture and national characters between China and Japan could be exposed by comparing the proverbs related to cattle. This study, employing a spectral list which reflects the actual use of proverbs, aims to analyze the reasons for the differences in the acquisition of Chinese and Japanese cattle-related proverbs and explore the connotation of metaphors from a sociocultural perspective. The study found that Chinese cattle-related proverbs have higher popularity and are larger in the quantity, richer in the genre and form than that of Japanese, which is related to the different cultural and historical contexts in which these proverbs emerged. The study also found that common metaphors in Chinese and Japanese cattle proverbs show a negative image when describing other persons. Although cattle have made great contributions to the social and economic development in ancient China and Japan, their metaphors are mainly used to criticize human behavior with a negative image, such as being stubborn or stupid. This study provides a comparative analysis of Chinese and Japanese cattle proverbs from a sociocultural perspective and hope to improve the study of animal proverbs and promote cross-cultural communication.

Joachim Bergenstr?hle   

As a lecturer and scholar in the field of screenwriting, one may grow frustrated with the hegemony of classical dramaturgy, which lays like a wet blanket over the creative writing and carries imbedded patriarchal values which inevitably rub off on the content. This article will show that the story structure method reduces film writing to a mere narrative process without regard or humility for the multimodal qualities and capabilities of cinema to create sensual experiences for a participating audience. It will point out the risks of this alignment for cinema, making the film stories predictable but at the same time estranged from everyday life. Hence, the article will propose an alternative method to the screenplay template: cinematic world-building, based on artistic processes in a hermeneutic framework and a phenomenological approach to the experience of the film world, which transforms the viewer - from voyeur to co-creator. The purpose of the method is to give the screenwriting students a greater understanding of the abilities of the audio-visual elements - as units and as cooperating constellations - to build moods, content, themes and to develop their stories from cinematic spaces with alternative narrative structures. The article will display a trial of the first step of the method performed in a BA scriptwriter course with a very good reception from the students. Their work and their reflections on their writings and on the method are presented. Some shortcomings are discovered, but above all, the method is perceived to have good potential for further development.

Virginia T. Dlamini-Akintola   and Siphilangenkosi Siyaya   

A survey of the pass rate of English language in Eswatini revealed that many candidates fail to credit the subject. Therefore, the opportunity to enroll in tertiary institutions or immediately seek for employment is either lost or delayed (for those who credit English after several upgrading attempts). The examination reports also revealed that many candidates failed the essay type of questions, which carry weight because many fail to construct cohesive and coherent texts (http://www.examscouncil.org.sz/). This report ignited our interest to investigate the linguistic resources available for teaching cohesion in English in secondary schools in the Kingdom of Eswatini. Therefore, we analysed the nature of content on cohesion in secondary school textbooks used in Eswatini, and examined students¡¯ ability in using grammatical cohesive devices to combine ideas within and across sentence boundaries (intra-/inter-sentential cohesion). Secondary school students were given language exercises drawn from sampled simplified texts to combine ideas into cohesive texts. Linguistic and document analyses were employed to analyze data on language experimental exercises and the content in prescribed textbooks. The range of conjuncts used and frequency of their use to realize inter-/intra-sentential cohesion were evaluated. The occurrences of grammatical cohesive devices in the textbooks were also rated. The results showed limitations in the depth of content on grammatical cohesive devices in both prescribed textbooks and their use in students¡¯ sampled simplified texts. The significance of conjuncts in intra-/inter-sentential cohesion is not given much attention in prescribed textbooks in Eswatini. There is a need to purposefully add content on grammatical cohesive devices in the design of English language textbooks used at this level since English is used as a second language.

Aliaa Aloufi   

Interest in the phenomenon of sound symbolism, in which certain phonemes might be inherently associated with certain things, dates back to 400 B.C. While it has been assumed in most modern theories of linguistics that the relation between sound and meanings is arbitrary, an increasing number of studies have shown that there can be systematic sound-meaning associations. Among such systematic patterns is phonetic symbolism due to the iconicity between sound and meaning. Building upon earlier findings concerning the correlation between male and female names and certain sound classes found in English language, this study examines phonetic patterns, voiceless obstruents and sonorant consonants of the top 100 first names in four languages. The purpose of this study is to show that these tendencies may generally hold among existing first names in other languages as well. The results show that voiceless obstruents tend to be used more frequently in male names than in female names, and sonorant consonants tend to be used more frequently in female names than in male names. Indeed, this study offers further indications concerning this phenomenon, in which phonetic symbolism is not restricted to nonwords and can be found in real first names across languages. It sheds light on the phonetic factors, namely acoustics and other phonological characteristics that might trigger this systematic association.

V. T. Dlamini-Akintola   and T. G. Dlamini   

Eswatini is a bilingual country with English and Swati as official languages. Speakers of other languages use English to communicate with the exception of many speakers of languages spoken in Mozambican such as Shangaan and Portuguese who tend to acquire Swati as soon as they interact with the locals and pick some English if they work for English-speaking employers. At the University of Eswatini, students in the Bachelor of Arts in Humanities programme have an option to study both Swati and English grammar in the Departments of African Languages and Literature and English Language and Literature respectively. Over the years, we noted that despite intensive teaching the constituent structure of the English noun phrase and its syntactic functions within the clause, many candidates still translate the syntactic functions of the Swati noun phrase when describing the English noun phrase. This study then determined to investigate whether the incorrect description of the syntactic functions of the English noun phrase was a result of negative transfer/interference; lack of focus, or an error learnt during the teaching and learning of the English noun phrase from the secondary school level. Using a linguistic analysis of students' responses to tests/examinations and an analysis of prescribed textbooks for teaching English Language in secondary schools, we found that the problems students had in describing the constituent structure and syntactic functions of the noun phrase were transferred from two sources. The first source is the errors identified in the content of prescribed textbooks used to teach English Language at the secondary school level and the second source is the transfer of the description and function of the noun phrase from Swati¨C a first language of the participants. The findings show the need to incorporate all pillars of linguistic competence: the organizational and sociolinguistic competences when designing materials for the teaching of English to enrich the input required for the optimal comprehension and use of the structural elements of a second language.

Linli Lan   and Ying Yuan   

Since the 20th century, the increasing focus on the environment has drawn people's attention to the concept of ecology, bringing about Ecolinguistics, Ecoliterature, Ecosemiotics, etc. However, ecological rhetoric as a subdiscipline needs to be clarified. This essay aims to explore its origin, major strands, and future trend. We find that ecological rhetoric can be traced to Kenneth Burke's thoughts in the 1930s, and that there are four major strands -- ecological composing, in situ rhetoric, transhumanism, and rhetorical ecology, of which in situ rhetoric is the most promising, justified by its philosophical foundation, transdisciplinarity, inclusiveness and operability. Philosophically, "embodiment" of in situ rhetoric originates from the body philosophy of Nietzsche, Merleau-Ponty, Lakoff and Johnson, etc.; the collaboration between rhetoric and other disciplines (anthropology, cultural studies, etc.) displays its transdisciplinarity; inclusiveness is shown in the wide range and diverse forms of research subjects; and its operability is accounted for from the feasible integration of rhetorical categories and ecological fieldwork. These four elaborated features can justify our choice of in situ rhetoric as the potential trend of ecological rhetoric.

Mao Feng   Yu Tingting   Xiao Maolin   Wu Yangjian   and Wu Biyu   

The "Belt and Road Initiative" has helped China strengthen economic and trade cooperation, and promote cultural exchanges with countries along the route. As an important city in China, it is a matter of great concern how Shanghai's cultural communication and development are under this broad framework and how its cultural promotion and outreach can be improved. Under the guidance of the "Shanghai Serving China's 'the Belt and Road Initiative ' and the Action Plan of Bridgehead Role", this study comprehensively combs the current situation of Shanghai culture and its going-out from the overseas perception through a questionnaire survey of foreigners in Shanghai, understands the current situation of Shanghai's cultural development, and then puts forward the effective cultural path and strategies for Shanghai in service to the national initiative. The study points out that Shanghai is facing more opportunities than the cultural challenges and conflicts brought by the initiative. Given that the respondents were all foreigners in Shanghai, the representativeness of the questionnaire may be limited. However, such a small-scale survey is of certain significance to our understanding of the problems existing in the cultural promotion and communication in Shanghai.

Tamar Mebuke   

This paper is dedicated to a centennial anniversary of the publication of The Waste Land by T.S. Eliot, the poem that marks the beginning of modernism in literature and still remains one of the most influential and discussed poems of the XXth century. In this poem, Eliot examines the fundamental values of human existence. In the example of the generation of "lost souls", he describes the disintegration of life and moral standards, as well as strives to find a way for reconciliation with existential problems by examining the existent reality so as to make subsequent reintegration in order to continue life. Religious revelations are seen as the eternal wisdom that has never been hidden from man of any cultural tradition, and the point from which spiritual revival may start. Consequently, the method of comparative mythology was applied to the analysis of the content of the poem. A century after its publication, the poem has not lost its significance due to the depth of its penetration into the nature of human vices that corrupt human existence and the philosophical problems they engender. Unlike most previous studies that accentuated the motifs of despair, distress, and loss of hope as the main motifs of the poem, the paper stresses Eliot's search for ways out of the existing crisis, which represents the novelty of the paper, as well as its social implications.

Wang Jing   

Since the 1980s, English language teaching for non-English majors has been an integral part of general education in higher educational institutes in China. It aims to develop students' ability to use English in a well-rounded way, enhance their ability to study independently and improve their general cultural awareness. To accomplish these goals, numerous researches have been done to decide what the most suitable teaching methodology is for Chinese students. The Production-Oriented Approach (POA), proposed by professor Wen Qiufang, advocates that all teaching activities in the classroom should be aimed at students' productive output, and students are expected to participate actively in genuine communicative activities. As a foreign language teaching theory with Chinese characteristics, the POA is currently widely used in foreign language teaching with remarkable teaching effects. However, as to the teaching procedure and how to apply this methodology to English teaching, teachers are often confused as there are different interpretations of the POA. This paper designed a 6-session teaching plan based on the theoretical framework of the POA. Through this 6-session teaching experiment, students were found to be more motivated and more eager to learn. They were equipped with enough input enabling materials for their final productive output. Teaching and learning were, therefore, more explicit and efficient. In the meantime, this kind of teaching is highly demanding for both teachers and students, whose joint efforts are required to bring out the better outcomes of college English teaching. With a clear description of the teaching procedure which includes three phases¡ªmotivating, enabling and assessing, this paper aims to shed some light on a possible new way of college English teaching in China.

Zara Kostanian   and Svetlana Kuznetsova   

Today's tertiary education is in urgent need of curricula aimed at teaching professional skills and competencies to university students. As a compulsory subject in many universities across Russia, English has been adjusted to meet this need, giving rise to ESP and EPP programs designed for narrow specialists. Nevertheless, journalism students have been paid little attention due to a common belief that to cover a wide variety of topics, they need EGP ("General English") supplemented with essential journalistic terms. The current paper refutes this stereotype by introducing a workable model of how English can be taught to journalism students through fostering professional competencies such as genre writing, editing, pitching, and publishing. The authors use the example of BJW (Basic Journalistic Writing) and the student magazine MessAge issued within its framework to illustrate a successful implementation of a professionally-oriented course. The latter is based on a complex methodological approach, which combines CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning), genre writing, process and product writing, and Project-Based Learning (PBL). The surveys taken among BJW students in 2018-2022 provide evidence that they highly value the course for its practical approach and an opportunity to master professional competencies from the first year of the Baccalaureate program.

Ellen Thompson   Nandi Sims   and Reyneiro Castro   

This work investigates the structure and meaning of main clause wh-questions in Cuban Spanish and argues that individuals learning Cuban Spanish as a Second Language will benefit from practice with grammatical structures that illustrate this behavior. We show that grammaticality judgment data that we obtained from monolingual Cuban Spanish speakers indicate that inverted word order is more likely with non-D-linked and non-Complex wh-expressions, and least likely with D-linked and Complex wh-expressions. More broadly, we argue that this data indicates that Interrogative Inversion in Cuban Spanish is syntactically distinct from Inversion in English wh-questions, and that learners of Spanish as a Second Language thus benefit from exposure to these specific constructions.

Abbas Hussein Abdelrady   

This study aimed to examine lexical awareness: A descriptive study was used to see how explicit vocabulary-related education might boost academic writing in undergraduate learners studying English as a foreign language. SPSS software was used to analyze and verify the data. According to the data, learners' vocabulary is insufficient in-depth and size for academic writing. Furthermore, EFL teachers do not provide students with a choice of reading materials to help them learn vocabulary. According to the findings of the study, EFL teachers should emphasize the importance of vocabulary. Additionally, teachers should encourage students to access the internet, interact, and read native text resources. Additionally, I advocated that the Sudanese English curriculum be integrated into academic writing. Sudanese education policy should promote the study of English for educational purposes rather than for communicative purposes. A questionnaire and vocabulary-building activities were used in the study to determine whether literature is beneficial for vocabulary acquisition. The findings of the study revealed that the EFL subjects gained a positive increase in their vocabulary because of the existing curriculum. EFL teachers should employ innovative methods to instill vocabulary acquisition in the hearts and minds of EFL students to foster a love of reading sections among themselves.

Huijuan Yi  

The Book of Evidence (1989) is one of John Banville¡¯s ekphrastic novels which are typical of verbal representation of visual representation. This paper aims to explore the intersemiotic transposition of literature and visual images by analyzing the way in which the two forms of signs interweave and the novel¡¯s themes combine with the verbal representation of visual images. It is argued that the derogative verbal representations of laborers and women, as the protagonist¡¯s perceptual images, denote the verbal/visual social coding and power relationship between the ekphrastic speaking subject and the mute semiotic other. Paintings to which ekphrastic texts are alluded to demonstrate the narrator¡¯s displacement of colonial inborn superiority and racism towards the subordinated other. Verbal representations of pubs and drinkers vividly present the pregnant moment, moment of stopped actions displayed in paintings. The implications of verbal representations function as ¡°a speaking speech¡± and evoke the power-dominated colonial history and critique its consequences of the overall inequality in Ireland between the 1980s and 1990s, identity hybridity and alcoholism in a new social order which resembles that of the colonized one. By comparing the narrative verbal representations of the woman in the portrait with the descriptive verbal representations of the maid, the paper probes into the protagonist¡¯s inability to see others in real life and the denial of others¡¯ alterity. In virtue of the language¡¯s arbitrariness and freedom in conveying emotions and ideas, the ekphrastic narrative texts interpret and comment on the iconic woman¡¯s portrait, which ¡°envoices¡± the mute object and parodies the disregard for innocent lives and alienation resulting from long-term colonial violent conflicts between Northern Ireland and Republic of Ireland. Critique of racism, alcoholism and violence in post-war Ireland is conveyed by integrating visual images¡¯ highly ambiguous and socio-political implications into the texts, which makes the novel an iconotext where intersemiotic transposition occurs.

Chandan Kumar   

The paper, describing the fact that definiteness cannot be treated on par with the phi-features, suggests a pragmatic-oriented approach towards the phenomenon of multiple determiners in Magahi. It is a linguistic strategy to make the reference deictically (spatially and temporally) available in the context. The paper, providing the pragmatic justification for the phenomenon, argues in favour of a mixed structural account whereby the predicate raising, and split-DP are taken into account. The paper provides both structural and semantics justification for the predicate rising analysis, as the additional determiner on the adjective has the function of both relativizer and nominalizer. Following Julien [29] and Compos & Stavrou [14], FP projection is assumed to host the head /-k¨»/ which agrees with the lower N in nominal features like gender and number. To take account of the complexity of the initial derivation of N in Magahi, a classifier language, an nP in Julien's [29] spirit is adopted with modification. A DP is also projected to host the nominal tense feature and strong referentiality. The proposed analysis captures the existing possible conflation within the NP and introduces a new kind of discussion in the literature through the novel data.

Inas I. Almusallam   

In recent years, there has been much debate about the concept of face. Some researchers call to consider face as an area of research on its own ?[1], ?[2]?, [3], ?[4]. The study investigates how the concept of face can be related to the Arab world through the exploration of the emic meanings of face as encoded in Saudi Arabic folk terms. The corpus includes 89 expressions collected using my knowledge of Arabic as a native speaker of the language through observation of authentic conversations, TV series and programs, Twitter, and Google. The analysis shows that although the concept of face in Saudi culture can be individual and situational, it is seen as an individual's or group's property that emerges overtime as the accumulative effect of previous interactions with the same individuals or other members of the groups they belong to. Face appears to be a valuable possession more oriented to in-group relationships rather than individual autonomy, and it is mainly enhanced by retaining group and cultural values such as collectivism, honour, and religion. The study aims to stimulate further investigation of the etic and emic conceptualization of face as well as contribute to the related continuing debate in pragmatics by exploring a novel culture in the field.

Muhammad Sharif Hasanzoy   and Zahidullah Abid   

There have been few researches in Afghanistan that have looked into the relationship between reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge among EFL learners. As a result, the goal of this study is to investigate the relationship between reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge in actual English texts among Afghan students studying English as a Foreign Language (EFL). This research is based on quantitative correlation design. The questionnaire and actual text were utilized to collect data in the study, which were based on Laufer and Sim's (1998) reading and vocabulary testing methodologies. All respondents in this study consisted of forty (n=40) Afghan EFL students from Kunduz University, ten females and thirty males. The data were analyzed using descriptive analysis and inferential tests in Statistical Software Package (SPSS) Version 24. (Pearson correlation). It is hoped that this study would raise awareness among Afghan EFL instructors about the need to revise their syllabus, particularly in regards to reading courses, in order to deliver effective teaching to their EFL students. More research on university and school EFL students can be performed to gain more reliable and in-depth data about reading comprehension and vocabulary knowledge.

Noof S. Alharbi   

Flipped Learning Strategy (FLS) has become one of the innovative trends in education to create an exciting learning environment where the instructor becomes a facilitator or guide and students construct their knowledge. Therefore, the current study aimed at investigating the effect of the Flipped Learning Strategy (FLS) on developing university students' English reading comprehension. The study also sought to reveal students' attitudes towards the use of the flipped learning strategy. The study sample consisted of 54 female undergraduate Saudi students enrolled in 102 English courses in the preparatory year at a pioneering university in Saudi Arabia. The students were assigned to two groups: experimental and control. A pre-post reading comprehension test and an attitude scale were used to measure students' attitudes towards FLS. The study revealed that FLS had a positive effect on developing university students' L2 English reading comprehension. The findings also showed a statistical difference at (¦Á=0.05) between the control and experimental groups in the post-reading comprehension test in favour of the experimental group. In addition, the findings pinpointed that students in the experimental group showed positive attitudes towards the use of FLS. The study recommends that much effort should be made by researchers and teachers to implement the FLS in various learning stages to improve the English language in Saudi Arabia. Also, the study provides insight into opportunities for further studies.

Milan Ma?¨¢t   

The main goal of the paper is to answer the question How are selected aspects of World War II represented in the artistic narrative The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosi¨½ski? After reading the novel, the analysis examined the main lines of depiction of the events happened in World War II, focusing on those that are, in my opinion, key to the interpretation of the novel and to create parallels between artistic literary representation and reality of World War II. After the introduction, in which I presented the circumstances that accompanied the publication of the book The Painted Bird in the United States of America and then in other countries (discussions and disputes were mainly based on depictions of brutality, which, however, was an integral part of life during World War II), I focused on selected aspect implemented into the narrative. I have divided them into five groups: 1) A Futile Struggle for Life, 2) Christians versus Jews, 3) I?m One of You: Looting of the Kalmyks, 4) The Habits of the Villagers and 5) Implementation of the Ideas of Communism. The analysis showed that selected aspects of World War II, focusing on the integration of a multilateral view of selected events of a defined historical phase, are represented in the Kosi¨½ski?s narrative mainly through a certain influence of the external environment on the formation of the boy?s personality. The first metamorphosis is guided by the devaluation of its ethical and moral values with the main goal: to survive. This effort permeates the entire artistic narrative and is most significantly depicted in the futile struggle for the life of a painted bird in the environment of individuals of its kind, which is a parallel to the boy?s life among other people. The second transformation of his personality takes place during the rage of the Kalmyks in one of the villages, during which he realizes his resemblance to these people and in a way seeks to explain the transformation of his moral values based on external resemblance to them. A certain "correction" of his not very fault due to a distorted personality profile is thematized in a meeting with a Russian soldier who is trying to acquaint the boy with communist ideas. Based on the presentation of selected aspects that were part of the Second World War and their representation in the analyzed artistic narrative, I believe that The Painted Bird should become an integral part of compulsory school reading.

Adejoke Adetoun Ademuyiwa   and Eunice Uwadinma-Idemudia   

In the Yoruba Nollywood film industry, there is a crop of non-native actors who are fluent in their native language and also conversant in the Yoruba language. These actors fail to articulate the level of believability in indigenised Yoruba cultural films, due to the linguistic impediment of their native language in the required diction of cultural films. This paper refers to them as polyglots and discusses their inability to acculturate linguistically in culture-based films through characterisation, diction, gesticulations and socio-cultural nuances. This paper, therefore, explores the inadequacy of language delivery due to linguistic impediment of the native language of select polyglot actors in Yoruba Nollywood films as a hindrance to adequate interpretation of Yoruba language. Three non- native actors in native Yoruba films were studied, and their linguistic performances were content analysed in line with the impediment of their mother tongue. The paper adopts the Social Learning Theory of Albert Bandura, which identifies the impact of language on the audience, and sees the actor as a part of models to either elevate or denigrate ethical values of language in society. The research is premised on Qualitative method of research in analysing the visual film materials to identify linguistic strength and deficiency of the Yoruba language in performance. Findings show that actors who underplay nativity through language undervalue linguistic appreciation of the audience, and also reduce the cultural values the films are meant to propagate.

Zhengying Guo   and Ying Yuan   

The Greek word topos (Latin counterpart, locus) means literally a "place" or "region" for arguments to reside in. Although it is one of the essential tools for rhetorical invention, the evolution of its meaning and function has suffered neglect. By systematically exploring topos in a chronological order, this essay reveals its varying focal points: from formal and material categorizations in the Greco-Roman era to theological aspect in the Medieval time, from stylistic topos in the Renaissance to moral orientation in the Enlightenment, and then to argumentation scheme in the contemporary time. Through examining the related classical and modern scholarship, this inquiry finds that the two inventional tools ¡ª topos and stasis (a system of controversial issues) ¡ª richly complement each other. Focusing on the generative common topoi/topics, this study finally integrates the closely related elements of Cicero's stasis into the popular topical system of Corbett and Connors (1999) to justify a richer and more reasonable topos model. The refined model consists of 5 major topoi/topics properly subcategorized: Definition with conviction, genus, essence, division; Comparison with similarity or difference, superiority or inferiority, more or less; Relationship with cause and effect, antecedent and consequence, opposites; Circumstance with past fact and future fact, possible and impossible; and Testimony with authority, testimonial, statistics, maxims, laws, precedents. This investigation contributes to strengthening the theoretical basis for the application of topos in the field of composition, argumentation, and rhetorical criticism.

Cencen Lai   

Nadine Gordimer is one of the most remarkable contemporary English writers in South-Africa. Most of her writing dealt with moral and racial issues, particularly during apartheid. She was the first South-African writer who won the Nobel Prize in Literature for her magnificent epic writing in 1991. Since the 1960s, academic studies on Gordimer in Western or African countries have sprung up, and a complete research system has been formed, including monographs, interviews, as well as a large number of high-quality academic paper. In China, the studies on Gordimer began at the end of the 1980s, which is late. Chinese research has gradually developed from single to diverse perspectives in the past 3 decades. This paper aims to provide an overview of academic studies on Nadine Gordimer in China chronologically, clarifying the development trend as well as offering a reference for further studies. To enhance the studies on Gordimer, the Chinese research fields need to be extended, and the depth of research can be deepened. At the same time, Chinese scholars should break the research stereotype and undertake interdisciplinary studies to improve the research system. Actively constructing the critical discourse with Chinese characteristics is also of great significance.

Ifeyinwa Virginia Awagu   

The quality of language of a scholarly paper determines its acceptability for academic publication. Books, editorials and journals have distinguished styles of expressions, sentence construction, lexicon and mode of writing or reporting, in addition to reference and citation styles within the academic domain. Given that authors are expected to communicate their organized thoughts and research findings with accuracy and sensitivity, challenges abound in conformity to house style or grammar. Sometimes, the authors encounter the interference of structural construction or the interference of the mother tongue for a non-native speaker writing in a second language. There is need to interrogate the specific features of academic writing that would guide intending authors and qualify their manuscript for publication. Through a conceptual and critical analysis of the literature and guidelines laid down by some academic house styles like APA 6th Edition, this paper examines the specific features of language that an author writing in any language for publication needs to consider for acceptability. It also considers some topical issues attendant to writing in scholarly language. The findings reveal that scholarly research is a specialty, thus the language is within the unique set of rules governing academic writing. The nature of some scholarly research disposes them to an exclusive audience which might demand language conceptualized within the boundaries of a specific discipline. In addition, the language barrier between thoughts and written words constitutes a hindrance for non-native speakers. The study concludes that the language of academic report communicates and authenticates the findings, thus editors give priority to manuscripts that demonstrate clarity, objective and analytical skills. It also posits that academic writers need special tutoring in the language, both for native and non-native speakers. Linguistic variance in textual and rhetorical structure lends itself to socio-linguistic, ethnographic translation, logical and pedagogic orientation. Academic brokerage should be encouraged. Minimizing rejection might call for academic communities not represented in high impact factor journals to grow journals with high impact factor within national or cultural boundaries.

Jefwa Mweri   

The corona virus disease has impacted virtually everybody in the world today by introducing various changes leading to what has come to be known as the new normal. This paper gives COVID-19 a new perspective from the medical one that is always examined. It analyses how the English language has been able to adapt to the changes that COVID -19 has occasioned. Because it is dynamic, language changes to accommodate new happenings in society for example introducing or coining completely new words into their vocabulary through word formation processes such as blending and acronymy or through old words acquiring new meaning (semantic shift) or old words gaining currency due to an emerging and trending situation. These word formation processes are examples of neologisms. This paper therefore is an analysis of language of social crisis and it examines neologisms in the wake of COVID-19 by shading some light on how some of the words and phrases being used in what we will call corona vocabulary came into existence or how they are used in the context of a catastrophic event that COVID-19 is. Through a descriptive qualitative method of analysis, we obtain and analyze information on what we consider a trending issue of global concern ¨C COVID-19. Data were collected from different sources about language use in the realities of the pandemic. The words and phrases were obtained from social media, daily newspapers and other writings that revolved around the issue of COVID-19. Similarly, we draw from various theoretical approaches to neologisms discussed by Rets and others. We also account for the changes in language use that have been occasioned by COVID-19 by using MAK Halliday functional theory that posits that language changes are occasioned by the needs of its users.

Mirzana Pasic Kodric   

Zuko D?umhur's literary work has an impressive multimedial and intermedial character, not only his travelogues, but generally the entire body of his creative work. This paper intends to precisely examine the nature of his work, where the emergence of intermediality, i.e. the relationship between drawings and text, can be considered as an additional thematisation. It would be difficult to conclude whether the highly hybrid and very complex nature of the multimedial and intermedial nature of Zuko D?umhur's work stem from the poetics of Modernism. Especially when it comes to the Avant-garde heritage, which, as well as Modernism, is very close to him, or the influence of remarkable earlier travelogues, which also link the drawing to a text like e.g. Evliya ?elebi etc. However, it is certain that the reasons behind his unique discourse can also be found in the fact that Zuko D?umhur, by his nature, was a very multidimensional person of many preferences, talents, professions and interests. This paper could not exhaust all the aspects of this extremely complex topic, but did try to draw attention to the unique discourse, role and place of Zuko D?umhur's work as one of the most significant Bosniak and Bosnian-Herzegovinian travel writers, and beyond, with a significant place in the wider South Slavic literary context too.

Aliaa Aloufi   

This study looks at a minor but interesting phonological phenomenon that is vowel epenthesis in Toda songs, a Dravidian language spoken in South India. The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the extent to which vowel epenthesis is used to satisfy the poetic meter preferences in songs and verses that are sensitive to the number of syllables per line in the light of Optimality Theory (OT). This study was largely based on songs collected by Emeneau [1] and recently recognised by Fabb [2]. It offers an analysis of vowel epenthesis using the ranked and violable constraints of OT [3]. The conclusion of the paper is that vowel epenthesis is triggered by a non-rhythmic size meter that constrains the length of the line of the poetic form in Toda to be strictly three syllables [4]. Within OT, violation and the strict domination of OT constraints are capable of accounting for the vowel epenthesis in Toda songs. Theoretical insights from OT enrich our understanding not only of Toda phonology but also of its metric rules. More generally, OT is shown in this study to be a framework which manages to give meaningful clarification of complex and specific literary-linguistic interaction patterns found in a given language.

Wencheng Gao   and Xiaofeng Zhang   

Negation is crucial to semantics. Negative polarity items (NPI) play an important role in negation. There are a few studies on NPIs in Chinese, but so far no research is on NPIs in Chinese existential sentences (ESs). Because the existential verb "you" (have) is combined with the negative marker "mei" (not) in Chinese ESs, unlike in other types of sentences where "meiyou" (not have) together function as a negative marker. We wonder whether this combination of a single negative marker and an existential verb affects the licensing conditions of NPIs. This is why we study negative polarity items in Chinese ESs. We investigate the variety of negative polarity items which can be allowed in Chinese ESs, and their licensing conditions. It is found that four types of negative polarity items can occur in Chinese ESs, i.e. negative polarity adjectives, negative polarity adverbs, negative polarity wh-words, and negative polarity 'one' phrase as minimizer. In this paper, we just focus on the last two types of negative polarity items that can occur in Chinese ESs. The linguistic facts show that negative polarity wh-words (except 'duoshao') and negative polarity 'one' phrase as minimizer in Chinese ESs can be licensed by negative sentences, yes-no interrogative sentences, A-not-A interrogative sentences, and the antecedent clause of a conditional. We claim that negative polarity wh-words (except 'duoshao') and negative polarity 'one' phrase as minimizer in Chinese ESs are strong NPIs. It has been found that NPIs can be licensed by negative sentences in Chinese according to the previous studies. Our new contribution to the field is that we have found NPIs in Chinese ESs can also be licensed by yes-no interrogatives, A-not-A interrogatives and the antecedent clause of a conditional apart from negative sentences. This finding is to some extent accountable for NPIs in other Chinese constructions.

Efe Duyan   

This paper aims to analyze Turkish modernist poet N?z?m Hikmet's architectural spaces in his poetry from the perspective of Paul Ricoeur's theory of architecture and literature to unfold their artistic impact. As an interdisciplinary field, the narratology of space is directly linked to architecture and literature mainly dealing with the described spaces in fiction. Phenomenology and cognitive research, on the other hand, provides a background for the emotional experience of space. Paul Ricoeur's parallelism of architecture and literature rooted in phenomenology will be interpreted from the perspective of narratology of space to provide the main methodology of the research. Paul Ricoeur's theory not only offers a temporal perspective of the need, design, and experience but also provides an interchangeable terminology for narrative spaces. Taking his configuration concept into account, the modernist Turkish poet N?z?m Hikmet's narrative spaces will be analyzed. Ricoeur's theory presents a fitting methodology due to the socio-political discourse and the communicability of Hikmet's poetry. His narrative spaces in different periods will be interpreted according to their emphasis on certain spatial aspects, namely, the emplotment, intelligibility, and context. It will be demonstrated how the spatial qualities of Hikmet's spaces generate corresponding artistic effects. In conclusion, it will be claimed that Hikmet's narrative architecture creates an artistic impact to be experienced by reproducing the main idea, acting as a separate symbol, or shifting the poem's context. The conclusions will also suggest a viewpoint of how narrative qualities may inspire architectural design due to its configurative artistic impact.

Joy Christine Lwanga-Lumu   

The 21^st global era of massive migration and rapid change is characterised by social, cultural, scientific, political and economic upheavals hence highlighting the need for intercultural education as intervention to improve student performance, social*cohesion, economic development and peaceful coexistence. In South Africa (henceforth SA), English second language (EL2) educators are debating a transformation model of the humanities curricula to reduce intercultural incompetence and education inequality. This article uses the qualitative in-depth critical analysis method of the affordances and controversies of plurilingualism, as well as multilingualism. Specifically, it assesses the feasibility of adopting the intercultural communicative language teaching (iCLT) and language learning (ILL) framework to integrate intercultural perspectives, decolonise the EL2 curricula and promote multilingualism for higher education transformation. Educators are encouraged to shift perspectives by being eclectic in incorporating intercultural perspectives, the philosophy of Ubuntu, as well as understanding the crucial role of using SA indigenous languages/inter-cultures in scaffolding EL2 curricula for effective development of students' plurilingual and intercultural competence (IC). Finally, implications are outlined for using pedagogical strategies such as translanguation, technical computer-mediated support, instructional and research design, to innovatively develop students' academic proficiency, intercultural competence, socio-cultural identity construction, and democracy in multilingual SA and the cosmopolitan global village.

Maria Drossinou Korea   Helen Mintza   and Ioannis Stavrou   

Specific learning difficulties (dyslexia) are examined as a neurodevelopmental disorder according to the educational and teaching dimensions resulting from the effective or the ineffective coping with the difficulties of the school. In this editorial we will describe and analyze some recent findings in this field, also deriving from the change of diagnostic criteria proposed in 2013 by the American Psychiatric Association in DSM-5 that has led to an increase in the number of students that meet diagnostic criteria and that has led to an increase of the level of the heterogeneity of their functional profiles. Especially in secondary education the subject has implications for the future career of the pupils. The philologist who has expertise in the special educational needs by educational Greek law support the difficulties of his pupils. So, he should know the appropriate pedagogical tools to understand and support them. The aim of the research is to study the teaching intervention dyslexic pupils with emphasis on the memory difficulties in the course of the history. The pedagogical tool as the Targeted, Individual, Structured, Integrated Program for Special Educational Needs (TISIPfSEN) used in the primary and secondary teaching programs in the inclusion school systems. The pedagogical experiment of the special teaching methodology of TISIPfSEN was implemented in a certain case of a 3rd grade of Gymnasium student who intervened in the history lessons. The research issue was demonstrated in part because it requires the philologist to have been trained in the provision of the TISIPfSEN training tool in the difficulties of language, which is not always the case in undergraduate or postgraduate studies. In the case where the philologist himself has been trained in the TISIPfSEN methodology, he has emerged that he can design and implement the suitably adapted and differentiated intervention program with an emphasis on text comprehension. In the conclusions, we underlined that through the implementation of TISIPfSEN, the student succeeded in achieving the educational target we set by presenting an improvement in reading and understanding texts.

Zheng Ding-yao   

The main aim of this study was to examine the correlation of influential English learning factors and English academic performance of EFL college students from urban and non-urban areas. Three possible influential factors examined were student's motivation, academic performance and socio-economic status. The subjects were 126 students from Nanning labeled as UAS (Urban Area Students) and 136 students from non-urban areas labeled as NUS (Non-Urban Students) respectively. A questionnaire was used to investigate the subject's motivation and their parents' socio-economic status. The main result of the study was that both English academic performance of UAS and that of NUS were more related to motivation than other factors. The correlation between factors was further analyzed. The results of socio-economic status were divided into two main groups: economic and cultural socio-economic status. Both groups were directly proportional to the English academic performance of UAS and that of NUS. The result showed that the English performance of UAS was more related to economic socio-economic status; however, that of NUS was more related to cultural socio-economic status. On the basis of the results, among all factors, motivation is the most influential for students' English achievement. The influences of motivation on English learning are significantly different in both groups. Socio-economic status is highly correlated to students' English achievement in China. The results also show socio-economic and cultural advantages for students are highly significant for English learning. Thus, teachers should provide more socially and culturally advantageous environment for students from low socio-economic status families. The result that urban and non-urban students' English academic performance correlated to different types of status may imply that parents in urban and non-urban area may hold different beliefs toward English learning. Further study could be done to explore such differences.

Cao Ruoqi   and Lu Jie   

Pear S. Buck is a famous American female writer and Nobel Prize winner in Literature in 1938. Buck has lived in China for 41 years. Chinese culture has a profound influence on her works. Most of her works reflect the conflict, understanding and integration of the two heterogeneous cultures between America and China. In recent years, the researches on Buck have boomed dramatically, while there is still a deficiency in the study of Buck's characterization of Chinese images from an American perspective. Based on the traditional images of Chinese in the Good Earth, this thesis reveals the characteristics of Chinese traditional family members shaped by Pearl S. Buck through analyzing the characters of a peasant family and their relations. At the same time, this thesis also explores the characteristics of the kinship relationship written by the native Chinese authors, and compares the two from a comparative perspective, so as to find out the differences between the images of traditional Chinese characters shaped by the American author, Pearl Buck, and other native Chinese writers as well as the causes of these differences.

LU Jie   

Chinese Yi poet Aku Wuwu's Coyote Traces created in his sojourn in America includes a large number of poems related to Native American mythologies, history and beliefs. In his migration of the Native American image from America to China, Aku devotes to keep the rich connotation and authenticity of the Native American image through his broad visual field and horizontal perspective. Although in most cases, cultural filtration is almost inevitable in the process of cultural migration and the original image is bound to be changed or even distorted, Aku's successful migration of the Native American image proves that an image creator's visual field and perspective can largely decide the result of cultural migration. This thesis analyzes the image of Native Americans shaped by Aku from a comparative literature perspective in order to appeal for readers' attention that cross-cultural writing should narrow the gap between images in literature and in reality, because it should commit to take the responsibility to build a community with a shared future for mankind through the exchange of civilizations which should be constructed on the base of real understanding instead of fantasies.

Xu Wei   and Zhang Yi   

This paper investigated the coherent functions of interrogative mood metaphors in an academic context based on Halliday' model of mood metaphor [1] and Zhu's theory of thematic progression (TP) pattern [2]. With a focus on the strategies of linking the themes and rhemes in the metaphorical clause to those of surrounding clauses, this paper identified three main modes of information flow patterns. In the mood metaphor (S) and the sentence before it (S-1), the information current is often progressed in a concentrated way since the metaphorical questions often serve as enforcements of its former sentence. Concentrated Progression is also often used in the S and the sentence after it (S+1) to answer the previous metaphorical questions, serving the purpose of appealing to authority. Besides, Constant Progression, as a simple liner pattern of message current, occurs in S and S+1 to enhance the reading comprehensibility when introducing a concept to readers or to highlight the key viewpoints as evaluating the proposition in S. This paper has pedagogical implications for academic reading and writing practices of native and non-native researchers.

HE Yue   and LU Jie   

Although American poet Henry Wadsworth Longfellow and Chinese Yi ethnic poet Akuwuwu are in different eras and cultural backgrounds, both of them express deep humanistic care for Native American culture in the Song of Hiawatha and Coyote Traces. This paper firstly discusses some shared views on the Native American by the two poets, such as religious beliefs, planting culture and handicraft. Besides those similarities, this paper also elaborates some differences embodied in their poems, such as the characterization of typical Native American individual and their different understandings of Native Americans' attitudes towards foreign culture. Through a comparative study of the similarities and differences of the Native American writings by the two poets, this paper finds that Longfellow, given his times, looked at American Indians from a WASP perspective, whereas Akuwuwu, given his ethnic minority background, observed American Indians from an ethnic minority's perspective. By analysis of the reasons for their similar and different Native American writings, this paper advocates the exchanges of heterogeneous cultures based on a world cultural consciousness from an objective and equal attitude.

Abdullah K. Shehabat   

The present paper is a comparative study between two poems: Suad Al-Sabah's They Say (2001) and Anne Bradstreet's The Prologue (1650). The study aims to investigate certain aspects of feminist empowerment in these two poems, despite the time gap between them, and how well women's search of self-empowerment has improved over time. These poets expressed their discomfort in contemplating their poetic identities, a notion that often destabilized their efforts as writers. The poems will be closely read, interpreted and analyzed in light of women's empowerment. It is found that women have been struggling to maintain a sense of equality in terms of being heard, acknowledged and allowed to function hand in hand with man. Al-Sabah was capable to break her silence by combating the societal and religious constraints which the patriarchal world has created to abuse and maintain their power over women. Likewise, Bradstreet managed to speak up by establishing an intellectual home for herself. By and large, the two works have granted their feminist authors an authority to enter into the academic and intellectual literary spheres that enabled them to free their pens from man's domination.

Chen Weiqin   and Huang Chi   

The Peony Pavilion and A Midsummer Night¡¯s Dream are classic love plays created by Chinese Tang Xianzu and English William Shakespeare respectively. Their brilliant achievements in eastern and western dramatic literature have drawn widespread attention from many scholars so far. However, the comparison of the two works has not been studied enough. Although the two plays were created in China and Britain respectively, they shared a lot of similarities. This article aims to compare and analyze the two plays in terms of their setting of rebellious daughters and the tyrannical fathers and the employment of images, including dream and mythological imagery, and to demonstrate that under the influence of humanistic spirit and new cultural trends at the end of the 16th century. Tang Xianzu and Shakespeare, although living in different countries, were both committed to express the idea of opposing feudal ethics, fighting against asceticism, and advocating individual liberation. Their thoughts, together with Du Liniang and Hermia, the rebellious female characters in the plays, have influenced the literary creation of later generations. A comprehensive comparison and analysis of the two plays might help readers better understand the love thinking and ideological connotations of the two 16th-century writers in their different living environments.

Biying LIANG   

Training students to become competent translators out of their mother tongue is a challenging objective. Yet for Chinese undergraduate English majors, inverse translation is a necessary skill and an indispensible curricular component. In the pedagogical contexts, teachers and students of translation practice have generally found dictionaries to be of limited use as the explanations or answers offered are often de-contextualized, outdated, misleading or simply wrong. In contrast, corpora can offer more in-situ reference for the struggling translator. It is an area rather under-explored, especially in China, where not much research focusing on corpus-based priming in inverse translation training has been done. Presenting a case study of 50 Chinese undergraduate students majoring in English while they complete three rounds of translation of the same ST with/without different reference materials as tool kits, this paper explores whether, how and what types of corpora can be used in the classroom of translation training for quality improvement in student¡¯s inverse translation practice. Upon analysis, evidence from the tentative experiment confirms that a corpus-based preparatory activation session prior to inverse translation serves to prepare students in terms of linguistic capacity and knowledge base for the task at hand. However, students might place too much importance on the technical aspects of the ST and become implicitly influenced more by the reference material in their translation of technical terms than the more general words and phrases in the original texts. Grammatical nuances and creative writing are also areas in which the priming effect is weak.

Lai Peng   

Given the complexities which lie in the Chinese modal system, many Chinese teachers may feel that it is a daunting task to teach Chinese modal verbs to learners from other countries. Taking Chinese modal verbs "»á" (hui) and "ÄÜ" (neng) as the focus of the study, this paper analyzes and exemplifies the ambiguities in the acquisition of Chinese modal verbs from both semantic perspective and syntactic perspective in the aim of shedding light on the polysemous and indeterminate features of Chinese modal verbs and increasing learners' tolerance of ambiguity caused by polysemy and indeterminacy. Semantic ambiguity is illustrated by the use of semantic components and fuzzy set figures. Syntactic ambiguity is revealed through exemplified inconsistencies in grammatical distinction of root modality and epistemic modality. Mixed ambiguities of the above two are shown through transfer errors made by learners of Chinese. Analysis of the three types of ambiguity is based on both intralingual differences among Chinese modal verbs and interlingual differences between Chinese and English modal systems. It is revealed that ambiguity results from one-to-more correspondence in form-meaning mapping within the Chinese modal system and one-to-more correspondence between the English and Chinese modal verbs. As tolerance of ambiguity is needed for successful acquisition, it is hoped that the ambiguities identified in this paper can help Chinese teachers find a way to increase the learners¡¯ tolerance of ambiguity and can provide a key for researchers of Chinese to unlock more inherent features of modal verbs.

Alaa Alzahrani   

Studies have shown that the use of Engagement resources is a subtle task for research article writers, making the appropriate use of such resources a complex topic for less experienced writers. For this reason, the present study examined expert writers' ways of positioning their work in marketing research articles on Discussion sections to highlight how Engagement resources can be managed successfully. Drawing on the Engagement subsystem of the Appraisal Framework nine Discussion sections were analyzed both quantitatively and qualitatively using the UAM corpus tool. The analysis revealed that the Discussion sections were highly heteroglossic, and had contractive resources twice as much as expansive ones, suggesting that marketing academics are more concerned with establishing their credibility as knowers in the field than construing a reader-friendly text. It is also observed that academics in the marketing field tend to focus more on proclaiming their findings in the Discussion section while at the same time mitigating the communicative force of their argument by using tentative language, creating a subtle balance between claim-making and acceptance of potentially differing views. The findings of the present study can offer insights for academic writing materials' developers, novice researchers, and academic writing instructors.

Sun Yanzhe   

Hetu and luoshu, or the Yellow River trigrams and the Luo River trigrams, also the first mystical images in Chinese graphemic culture, are regarded as the origin of Heluo culture and feature prominently in the history of Chinese culture and Chinese thoughts. Many researchers of different dynasties expounded the sign of the image after the appearance of hetu and luoshu by Chen Tuan. The evolution of hetu and luoshu differed from the general process of symbolic evolution because its significance arose before its image. This particularity is due to the highly comprehensive and highly commensurable nature of hetu and luoshu as a meta-sign. According to the nearly archaeological excavation and using the methodology of "one vigor and four elements", this paper makes the interpretation of its graphic which reflects the wisdom of ancient Chinese philosophy. The interpretation will be analyzed as following: Yin-Yang five-elements, the harmonious relationship between man and nature, meta-sign and the means of image-numerology in Hetu and Luoshu. A thorough study of Hetu and luoshu may help understand the evolution of Chinese nation, Chinese national character, beliefs and orientation of social life, and help clarify the deep historical roots of cultural communication, cultural psychology and spiritual orientation.

Ya-Shu Chen   

A large number of mainlanders were forced to move to Taiwan with the KMT government in 1949. This group of Chinese mainlanders was mostly servicemen, government employees, and teachers; their composition differed tremendously from local Taiwanese. Such differences have been the historical and social origins of ethnic conflicts in Taiwan accordingly. It is found that although gender issues are important, it is not necessary and sufficient in the relations among ethnic groups in particular. Female mainlanders, due to their everyday life interactions with local people, had a much closer contact with local Taiwanese. The closer contact generated a higher local identity than that of their male counterparts. This paper therefore aims to explore the dynamic process between one's everyday life and cultural identity. Through a series of textual analyses of the work of female mainland writers, the present author attempts to inquire into the material basis of cultural identity through aspects of social life, namely food, clothing, residence, social networks, transportation and travel, education, and entertainment. This paper would also discuss the theoretical implication in a diaspora space.

Ding Yue   and Wu Biyu   

Due to the differences in conscious tendencies of the relationship between human beings and objects, the habit of using inanimate subjects of Chinese and English speaker is different. English sentences with inanimate subjects (ESWIS) bring difficulties for Chinese translation for it combines the usage of inanimate subjects and conceptual metaphors. This paper illustrates the usage of subjects and metaphors in ESWIS translation. It focuses on the interpretation of Conceptual Metaphorical ESWIS and makes analyses from the conceptual metaphor view. It is a case study which samples Conceptual Metaphorical ESWIS in the novel 1984 by George Orwell. It illustrates translation of Conceptual Metaphorical ESWIS with subjects "voice" "fear" "courage" "smile" in the whole corpus and explains translation decisions based on conceptual metaphors of this subjects. The research has two major findings: firstly, the universal existence of sentences with inanimate subjects in both Chinese and English can be explained either using direct description or through metaphors; Secondly, given the conscious tendencies of Chinese and English speakers in the relationship between human beings and objects, as well as how they use metaphors, the Chinese translation of ESWIS may use either animate subjects or inanimate subjects. It then subsequently may adopt the same or different conceptual metaphors compared with those in English, or just give direct descriptions to clarify the meanings. This paper provides practical and theoretical references for the translation of Conceptual Metaphorical ESWIS.

Gao Lin   and Hu Dan   

The rapid development of computational linguistics has put forward higher requirements for accurate semantic perception. As the foundation of the semantic understanding of natural language, much previous research has focused on the micro-structure of word meanings of different parts of speech and its sub-categories. This paper takes the anger-type psychological adjectives in modern Chinese as the research object and studies its semantic structures under the guidance of semantic primitive theory by describing the semantic features and the semantic primitive structural attributes, conducting the semantic analysis, extracting the semantic primitives and building a semantic primitive set of the anger-type psychological adjectives in modern Chinese. The result of this paper clarifies the similarities and differences between the meanings of all the anger-type psychological adjectives and solves the problems of circular and identical definitions in dictionaries, which to some extent is helpful in providing support for machines in language understanding and automatic language production therefore improves the speed and accuracy of language processing.

Linda Garosi   

This paper aims to study the Italian ghost story entitled A Dead Man's Bone, included in Tarchetti's Fantastic Tales (1869) to illustrate, by means of this specific case, both the way and the purpose of the reception of the Gothic and Fantastic in Italian narrative. For this reason, it is necessary to frame the textual analysis within the historical and cultural coordinates of the post-Unification years, in order to, first of all, clarify the fact that the operation ought to be evaluated in a specific ideological and compositional context rather than from a thematic point of view. In this regard, the study of A Dead Man's Bone intends to highlight that the most relevant outcomes of Tarchetti's rewriting of a ghost story by Th¨¦ophile Gautier have to be appreciated as the opening for new experiments in narrative forms which root in a rapidly changing situation and, nurtured by the disillusionment of the post-unification years. Moreover, the author's use of codes and conventions of a specific subgenre of modern Fantastic, such as the ghost story, is also related with his direct involvement in pseudoscientific movements as Mesmerism and Spiritism. It goes without saying that the author's effort to innovate narrative forms is meant to convey a personal interpretation of the present by means of a new kind of realism in art.

Kumon Tokumaru   

Modern humans are linguistic humans, who acquired the logical properties of phonemes and morae in speech sound to generate an infinite number of word signs and to compose grammatically modulated sentences with complex meanings. 5KA (thousand years ago) they invented characters, which could display individual knowledge and intelligence to be shared and passed on to the following generations. Civilization itself is the linguistic phenomenon where knowledge and thoughts are transferred to subsequent generations via written documents, and very rapid consecutive innovations take place. In the 21st century, we are at the third and final stage of logical linguistic evolution with the interactive search and electric transfer of information via computer networks. It is necessary to clarify the in-brain mechanism for linguistic processing and intelligence to take full advantage of the final stage. The author outlines on the general overview of Digital Linguistics (DL) and identifies the birth of linguistic humans at the time of the laryngeal descent, which provided vowel accented syllables containing logical properties of phonemes and morae, to 66KA on the southern coastline of South Africa at the beginning of Howiesons Poort industry.

Wang Ruonan   and He Jun   

Anchored on the public stereotype towards the dichotomization of gender and the social gender construct theory, the study examines the gender differences in terms of lexical choice manifested by the selected 20 U.S. presidential candidates from the year 2012 to 2020 and presents the changes of each gender group in a male-dominated political context. The corpus of this study consists of 60257 lexis of 10 male politicians and 63095 words of 10 female politicians which are extracted from their announcement and campaign speeches. Findings obtained from the results based on the quantitative research design and the application of CLAWS, AntConc and chi-square test reveal statistically significant gender-based differences. The findings support that even though male and female presidential candidates have almost the same priorities of usage in general lexical categories, the lexical choice of male candidates was relatively close to feminization while women tended to be neutral. Finally, it further speculates that the candidates of differing gender enjoy a distinctive consciousness on the social gender construction in public discourse to challenge or neutralize public stereotypes of gender identity. In view of the findings, the study recommends a questionnaire survey to verify the inference on gender color displayed by different language variables and an extensive database to enable a greater validity of the results in the future.

Wang Yumin   Jia Lijuan   and Zhao Jingxuan   

Academic writing poses a consistent challenge in many students' university career. This study conducted a systematic diagnostic assessment to identify specific discourse strengths and weaknesses in first-year undergraduate students' English writing. Our study found that the top three prevalent weaknesses are related to overall discourse awareness, syntactic proficiency, and idea development. Based on the knowledge of students' specific strengths and weaknesses, more targeted remediation prescription can be designed and delivered for maximal support in facilitating first year undergraduate students' development of English writing proficiency in the classroom setting.

Nasser Drareni   

Medical English language has developed quickly over the past few years. Concept mapping (CM) is an effective tool in teaching and learning, however ,this strategy has not been evaluated among medical terminology (MT) in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases (CVD).The purpose of this study is to introduce concept mapping to improve learning medical terminology in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases course, different skills and also to determine if concept mapping increases medical learners' capability to correctly interpret medical terminology in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases. Participants were fourth year medical learners (n=100) from the university of medicine Algiers in Algeria; they were randomly divided into two groups of (50), one group attending the traditional programme, the other the innovative programme. Learner performance was controlled using written knowledge tests. The Learners also evaluated the suitability of the learning process using a 7-item survey. The results of this study showed that the learners gave extremely positive ratings for the innovative course. So concept mapping is a strategy that can help medical learners, with their efforts towards meaningful learning and to enhance their different reasoning and learning skills, as well as their deeper understanding of medical terminology in risk factors for cardiovascular diseases.

Ya-Ju Yeh   

The Little Stranger (2009) depicts the story of the old gentry Ayres family in Hundreds Hall, an eighteenth-century magnificent estate that has lasted long past its former glory in the late 1940s Warwickshire. Faraday, the first-person narrator in the novel, a country physician summoned to treat a new maid in Hundreds Hall, became entwined with the obscure fate of the estate thirty years ago. Through deliberate contacts with the Ayres family, Faraday gradually befriends them. Yet Faraday's frequent visits and aggressive interference with the household chores triggers a sort of temporal disorder from the Ayres family. Since the house is intertwined and laden with secrets and tricks, as if there is a sinister presence, the Ayres family members lapse into their underlying fear and anxiety so that their lives oddly fall apart; at last, it leads to the inevitable collapse of the Hall. This paper examines different layers of temporal disorder which exerts profound influence on the protagonists in Hundreds Hall in The Little Stranger.

Sileshi Berhanu   

The main objective of this study was to assess lexical variations in the context of Afan Oromo and Literature Department's Research Methods course offered at the three public universities (Adama Science and Technology-ASTU, Addis Ababa-AAU and Ambo-AU) in Ethiopia. In these universities, particular course offering instructors were among the participants on the one hand. The research related books are locally published ones, the relevant course outlines, including the modules prepared as supportive materials and students' theses of the three public universities. "Wiirtuu"-magazines for Afan Oromo Standardization Volumes 1-11 (1995-2014) were used as secondary data sources, on the other hand. Instruments applied to gather data were the relevant document scrutiny, interviews and focus group discussions. After the assessment made, significant lexical variations were portrayed as the research findings. The course offering instructors and their respective students in the study sites were also lacked consistent use of these technical terms. And some of these varied terms create misunderstandings to the readers. Thus, it was suggested by the researcher that the instructors' team work spirit within and among the universities need to be enhanced in action so that standardized terms could be produced and accessed in coherence to respective users. And a responsible and working organ would also be in place to facilitate the creation of standard research methods course related technical terms.

Zhong Ying   

This study investigates the relationship between time and memory in McEwan's novel Atonement and the role the three different kinds of time figuration play in constructing the harmony among characters, authors and readers. Atonement is another masterpiece after First Love, Last Rites and Amsterdam, for it gains several literary prizes: the Smith Award, the National Book Critics Circle and Santiago European novel Award. In Atonement, McEwan describes the protagonist Briony's memory dilemma through disrupting the linearity and stability of narrative and readers are often caught in a Foucault-like maze in reading. Ricoeur's interpretative theory of mimesis and figuration provides a new hermeneutic dimension to the interpretation of the text and an alternative perspective to the reader. In fact, the understanding of the novel can be helped by the dynamic cycle of figuration chains including prefiguration, configuration and refiguration. In prefiguration, the underlying reasons for the central event in Briony's memory are introduced. The key links between historical and individual events, the past and the present, the main and messy plots scattered throughout the novel could be organized by emplotment in configuration. In refiguration, Briony's reconstruction of the same events is achieved by meta-narrative strategy. To sum up, the time figuration model contributes to the interpretation of Atonement and the analysis of the figuration strategy provides possible spiritual sustenance for the child who experiences traumatic events in the early stages.

Mengmeng Tang   

Chinese and English have typological differences in marking the temporal categories of verbs in sentences with multiple verbs. The perfective morpheme "le"is conventionally used after V2 to mark the completion of the event-continuum represented by both V1 and V2 in Chinese pivotal or serial-events sentences. In reminiscent English sentences, V1 inflects with tense and takes the suffix "-ed". The current study aims to investigate if the contrast between English and Chinese influences Chinese English as foreign language (CFL) learners' acquisition of "le" in pivotal and serial-events sentences. Via an analysis in HSK dynamic written composition corpus, we found misuses about mis-positioned "le" and lexical collocations in pivotal and serial-events sentences. The results showed that English CFL learners were influenced by English past tense marker "-ed" in the production of "le" in pivotal and serial-events sentences. L2 proficiency was not an influential factor in misusages but played a role in the total usage of these structures, i.e., high-proficiency learners produced these sentences more frequently than low-proficiency learners. It suggests that English CFL learners may have used the tense cue in their L1 to compose Chinese sentences with multiple verbs, and with the development of L2 proficiency, they tended to use pivotal or serial-events sentences more frequently. This finding reveals the morpho-syntactic transfer from English L1 to Chinese L2, contributes to the theories in second language acquisition in general, and gives pedagogical implications on Chinese L2 teaching.

Ya-Ju Yeh   

Affinity (1999), the British writer Sarah Waters' second novel, unfolds a suspenseful romance between two heroines, Margaret Prior and Selina Dawes in the setting of Millbank Gaol, one of London's most notorious prisons in the 1870s. Margaret Prior, an upper-class spinster, becomes a lady visitor of the prison, eager to escape her troubles and be a guiding figure in the lives of the female prisoners. Margaret finds herself increasingly fascinated by an apparently innocent inmate, the enigmatic spiritualist Selina Dawes. Selina takes a material strategy in order to gain Margaret's trust, which is, delivering Margaret something as gifts in the way of 'spirits'. Those objects are nothing more than ordinary ones regarding Selina, for instance, her own rope of hair or her neck collar. The personal possession, which serves as the very metonymy of Selina's affection or even herself, converts Margaret to believe in Selina's real spirit practice. Objects of possession assuredly function as a means of expressing the self or the way one lives and experiences so that they exert profound effects on manoeuvring the affinity relation. This paper aims to delve into distinct revelations of objects possessed and interpreted by the protagonists, examining how possession becomes an embedded expression of class politics in the prison and how objects involve mistress and maid relations resulting in diverse consequences of intimacy.

Rosario Pellegrino   

The purpose of this paper is to highlight the impact of Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) on the Neuro-linguistic Approach (NLA), which is the former's most natural application in the teaching field. NLA is not envisaged as a substitute for the language teaching approaches that have emerged in recent years, but aims essentially to define the so-called perceptive channels indicated by the acronym V.A.K.O.G. which underpin every form of learning and language learning in particular. On the basis of the studies of Claude Germain and Joan Netten inspired by the research of Michel Paradis into bilingualism, the principle of litt¨¦ratie (information literacy) is adopted in order to establish the relationships between harmony and anchoring, and between the communicative approach and NLA. References and studies on neurological pathologies find that declarative memory and procedural memory follow different processes and that knowledge and ability follow distinct cerebral paths. Harmony between individuals and anchoring to subjective elements lead researchers to set up efficacious and long-lasting learning paths.

Zhou Jingqiong   

This paper explores the relationship between the humorous language style, situational humor, and humorous characterization and the initiation of Sara, the protagonist narrator of Bread Givers. Backed with humor and initiation theories, four events in Sara's life will be discussed in detail so as to establish the argument that wide-ranging humor helps narrate and construct the essential steps of Sara's ultimate maturation. These four events are as follows: (1) Sara's departure from her parents' home; (2) Sara's renting a room of her own in New York; (3) Sara's rejection of a rich young man's proposal; and (4) Sara's integration of reconciliation with her tyrannical father into her acculturation. Sara, rising from the ghetto to become a college-educated schoolteacher in the public school, succeeds in achieving maturation and Americanization through her decision for reconciliation with her father, her Jewish legacy by extension.

Jefwa Mweri   

People's languages are vitally important to them. Through language, people communicate, share meaning and experience their sense of individual and community identity. Recognizing the profound importance that people place on their languages is a core insight for tackling poverty and hunger. UNESCO: The Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are essentially an expansion of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). The SDGs were a reaction to the weakness of the MDGs. Where the MDGs were only eight, the SDGs are seventeen. The SDGs are a new and universal set of goals, targets and indicators that UN member states will be expected to use to frame their agendas and political policies over the next 15 years. The question that comes to mind when we think of the implementation and success of these SDGs is how UN member states will be able to reach the grassroots with these goals for them to be translated into reality. Mother tongue (MT) or local languages definitely have an important role to play. This paper therefore examines the role of MT or local languages in the achievement of these goals. It examines the power of language as a tool of development. Whether it is about ending hunger, promoting health, equitable quality education etc., it is important to note that language-based development is essential for meeting these goals. For each of the goals set, local languages or Mother tongue has an important role to play. These goals envisage a participatory approach to economic development and genuine participation in the development process that is dependent on two-way communication between the implementers of the SDGs and the people, this requires engaging people in the language they speak and understand i.e. the MT or local languages. MT is the language through which people have learnt how to think and how to communicate and therefore it can be harnessed to ensure that communities develop local solutions to the SDGs challenges. This paper argues that just like there is a human rights based approach to economic development, it is equally important to recognize the role of language in general and mother tongue or local languages in particular in the drive towards sustainable development goals. We argue for a language-based approach towards the SDGs in ensuring their success. In this paper we shall examine each SDG and critically analyze the role of mother tongue in their achievement.

Zhao Cheng   

Updike's masterpiece, using skillful realism, succeeded in drawing a panoramic picture of the American society from the 1950s to the early 1990s in the "Rabbit Tetralogy." Updike strives to reflect the changes in contemporary American social culture for nearly half a century from the "rabbit" Harry, the everyman of the American society and the life experiences of his ordinary family. "Rabbit Tetralogy" truly reflects the living conditions of the contradictions of contemporary Americans: endless pursuit of free life or independent self and the embarrassment and helplessness of it; the customary life and hedonism under the traditional values, the intense collision of self-indulgent lifestyles inspired by thought. The endless pursuit of so-called freedom and self is bred. As the greatest masterpiece, John Updike's "Rabbit Tetralogy" shows readers nearly half a century of the American's social life, and provides literary critics listless raw material as well, and becomes a beloved apple in the mind's eye of Chinese scholars. This paper, adopting a comparative method, combs the historical clue of the study in the past three decades, two different phases and the respective research results and the main viewpoints are summarized and presented. Also this paper probes into the main problems in this field, i.e. the lack of sufficient research perspectives, relative research redundancy and the lack of communication between home and abroad, etc. and engages to point out the direction and tendency of future research. Further studies are suggested to conduct via literary space theory, etc. to enhance the study of "Rabbit Tetralogy".

Efe Duyan   

This study investigates the understanding of space in N?z?m Hikmet's poem Straw-Blond and the central role it plays in the composition of the text. Straw-Blond represents a diversion in the oeuvre of Hikmet, a politically controversial and arguably still the most beloved poet in Turkey, who is well-known for his realistic approach and linear narration. A train journey in the background, the text includes descriptions of several cities and places while dealing with the idea of loss in shapes of separation, exile, and aging. The unique way of how space is conceived can be summed up by the sudden and ceaseless jumps from one location to another, either to a geographically different place or to a moment in the past. This surreal network of spaces composed of places in different locations and times leads to a non-linear narration of a fast tempo that refers to the inevitability of the passing of time and it creates an extremely vague and uncanny atmosphere, which, in return, feeds the central theme of the fear of the loss. All the locations from different cities and times are interlinked in a way that the spatial composition of spaces takes center stage as an instrument of narration. Thus, the flow of spaces creates a unique architecture of narration.

Everlyn Etakwa   Mohamed Akidah   and Ayub Mukhwana   

The aim of this study was to examine the syllable structure types that occur in Olutura and their constitution. The study identifies the syllable structures of Olutura by showing the sound segments that constitute each of them. The data was analyzed using Generative CV Phonology which enabled us to identify the syllable structures of Olutura by showing the sound segments that constitute each of them. A purposive sampling technique was used to identify native Olutura speakers and to categorize the data into the required categories for analysis. Examples of words in which these sound segments occur are provided in order to show their positions in the syllable structures of Olutura. From the data analysis, Olutura has a total of seven syllable structures: V, VV, CV, CVV, CCV, CGV and GGV. This language variety has an open syllable structure because it does not allow codas. The VV and GGV syllable structures are marked because of their sparse occurrence in the overall phonological system of the language.

Zhang Pinggong   

In his cardinal work, Orientalism, the Western Conception of the Orient and other works, Edward Said reconfigures the historical construction of European and Euro-American discourses about Near-East civilizations, cultures and peoples. By defining the "Oriental" study as discourse, it can be examined within the power structure of hierarchies. Said's repeated utilization of Foucault's theory about the relationship between power and discourse led him to an examination of the cultural imperialism. With abundant references and illustrations, he has demonstrated how Orientalism was created alongside the European cultural penetration into the lands of the "Other" and how it was justified by various disciplines and practices. Scholars in China have now criticized the ideology of Orientalism and offered their unique reflections on the subject matter in the contemporary time.

Suwei Wu   

In line with the multimodal view of language, some studies found a relation between gesture and a fundamental grammatical category - transitivity. However, previous studies have simply employed the data of elicited narratives, which were unnatural and not interactive, and they were restricted to a few particular transitive and intransitive events. Against this background, this study employs more natural and interactive data ¨C conversations ¨C and considers a larger variety of grammatical constructions which are basic and frequently used in spoken language, including high-transitive, low-transitive, intransitive and copular constructions. Specifically, using a large amount of conversational data from the Red Hen database, this study examines the use of gestures accompanying the four constructions, and the question to what extent the gestures preferred relate to the ways of conceptualizing these constructions. Results indicate that the use of gestures accompanying the four constructions shows distinctions in the ways in which speakers conceptualize these constructions. These results suggest that these constructions seem to be multimodal in nature, which provides further empirical support for the multimodal stance that gesture is part of language.

May Abulaziz Abumelha   and Hesham Suleiman Alyousef   

The study reports a comparative investigation into the way Arabic first language (L1) and English native language scholars construct cohesive English texts in linguistics research articles through the use of linking adverbials (LAs). It was framed by Biber et al.'s (1999) classification of LAs. The corpus comprised 80 published research articles in a linguistics journal written in English by native and Arab scholars (304,144 words). Both qualitative and quantitative analyses have been conducted in order to investigate the semantic uses of LAs and their frequencies and percentages. There were overall similarities between the two datasets and slight differences that can be related to cross-cultural and L1 influence. Some Arab scholars had the tendency to overuse additive adverbials by comparison to other LAs. This tendency might be linked to their L1, such as Arabic which heavily uses additive adverbials. The findings revealed the non-native English speaking scholars' (NNES) slight preference for using formal (e.g. 'in order to') over less formal adverbials (e.g. 'so'). The distribution pattern of the categories was similar in both datasets. The study suggests investigating other genres of RAs written within different disciplines.

Majdah Alkhathlan   

This study investigated the type and frequency of metadiscourse markers used in fifty research articles written by Saudi EFL college students. In analyzing the data, Hyland's (2005) model of metadiscourse was adopted. The findings showed that there are significant differences in the frequency of interactive and interactional metadiscourse. The students employed more interactive metadiscourse markers than interactional ones. The analysis further revealed that transitions occurred most often in the research articles, followed by hedges. The least used metadiscourse markers were endophoric markers and attitude markers. To conclude, some pedagogical implications for teaching English writing to Saudi EFL college students were drawn from these findings. It can be noted that Saudi EFL college students need more training in using interactional metadiscourse to be able to convince the reader of their ideas and arguments in a text. In addition, they must be more aware of the importance of using metadiscourse in improving their writing skills in general.

Kumon Tokumaru   

Digital Linguistics (DL) is an interdisciplinary study that identifies human language as a digital evolution of mammal analog vocal sign communications, founded on the vertebrate spinal sign reflex mechanism. The author identifies the birth of linguistic humans at the time of the laryngeal descent, which provided vowel accented syllables containing logical properties of phonemes and morae. A character set and literacy is the second evolution. Written text is long lasting syllables in the brain of literate persons, and a civilization started as a linguistic phenomenon. At the end of their biological life, they can write their accumulated knowledge with a character set, so that subsequent generations can share their thoughts and experiences to develop further. In the 21st century, text is available in electronic form, which is interactive against keyword searches. It is time for linguistic humans to integrate disciplinary sciences and correct any errors to establish collective human intelligence. Piaget indicated that concepts can be manipulated correctly based on a group theory, which seems to be a base logic for intellectual evolution of linguistic humans as well as a tool for respectful and productive interdisciplinary discussions. [1][2]

Saleh Batais   

This paper provides an Optimality-Theoretic account of the consonantal repairs employed by Standard Sundanese to adapt seven illicit Arabic consonants in Arabic loanwords and thus bring them into conformity with its phonemic system. The study supports Best's Perceptual Assimilation Model (PAM), which posits that the unfamiliar consonants are perceived to their closest native counterparts in terms of articulatory features. It has been found that all seven Arabic consonants are replaced with native Sundanese counterparts with, first and foremost, the same major articulator (i.e., labial or coronal: IDENT (ARTICULATOR)) and voicing quality (i.e., [¡Àvoice]: IDENT (VOICE)), followed by the same manner of articulation (i.e., IDENT (MANNER)), which is preserved in the adaptation of five Arabic consonants only. In addition, while the source place (i.e., IDENT (PLACE)) and stridency (i.e., IDENT (STRIDENCY)) features are matched in only three adaptations each, IDENT (C) (i.e., no change of features) is never reflected in the data. Moreover, the adaptation of Arabic consonants satisfies markedness restrictions (represented by *EMPHATIC, *LABIODENTAL, *DENTAL, */f/, */z/, and */?/) in Sundanese phonology against the importation of Arabic consonants. This is captured by the following OT constraint ranking: MARKEDNESS, IDENT (ARTICULATOR), IDENT (VOICE)>> IDENT (MANNER)>> IDENT (PLACE)>> IDENT (C). In conclusion, this paper contributes to the insufficiently researched area of Sundanese loanword phonology.

Magonya Achieng' Lilian   

This paper re-examines the Jiko as a symbol of femininity within the East African region. In the Kenyan society, jikos serve as charcoal based ceramic stoves used for cooking in virtually all households. The goal of this paper is to infuse arguments which interface cognitive linguistics and sociolinguistics, in an attempt to unveil sexist terms coined around the jiko and further drawing on metaphoric extension, reveal how sexist expressions are cognitively interlaced with the semantic domains of marriage, sexuality and the female anatomy.

Ying Sun   

Under the background of globalization, the society has seen an increasing need for cultural exchange. As bridges between different languages, translations are needed for different occasions. Screen translation is a relatively new discipline in translation studies. Especially with the booming of the TV shows in Western countries, which have gained popularity all over the world, screen translation studies become more necessary. This paper discusses the features of subtitling and dubbing translation from the audience's perspective, and the ultimate purpose of this study is to formulate a set of criteria for screen translation in general, based on these features.

Aziz-ur-Rehman Saifee   Muhammad Ishaq   and Ubaid Ahmed Khan   

Allah revealed that the complete code of life for all mankind is to seek guidance as mentioned "The month of Ramadan is that in which was revealed the Qur'an a guidance for the people and clear proofs of guidance and criterion." (1) It is further stated: "Guidance to those who are Al-Muttaqeen (2) [the pious and religious persons who fear Allah much (abstain from all kinds of sins and evil deeds which He has forbidden). Furthermore, the following verses "[This is] a blessed Book which we have revealed to you, [O Muhammad], that they might reflect upon its verses and that those of understanding would be reminded." And "Then do they not reflect upon the Qur'an? Or are there locks upon [their] hearts?", also remind us to understand, and act upon by reflecting upon its verses to seek guidance. The scholars have been trying to facilitate the understanding of the Qur'an since its revelation took place and preserved. This study tries to explore the efforts of scholars who have collected the meaning of Qur'anic-words, which is the first step towards understanding of the Qur'an. In short, this collection is not only focusing on and analyzing the contributions of the scholars regarding LUGHAT-UL-QUR'AN, MAJAZ-UL-QUR'AN and GHARIB-UL-QUR'AN, but also gathered the contribution of scholars regarding indexing of the QUR'AN.

Merxhan Avdyli   

Mythology, in the poetry of Kadare, is quite present. It is presented as a special theme, which reveals not only the poetic but also philosophical ideas of Kadare. As such, mythical topography in Kadare's poetry is not only presented in various forms, but also presented with numerous mythological figures, especially from ancient Greek mythology, and also from Albanian mythology. Being present in poetry of Kadare, mythical topics are always in the function of comparing with contemporarily, taking the examples of mythological figures and heroes, but their places, not rarely implied as influential or comparable elements: mythical heroes with personalities from contemporary; their actions with the events and actions of modernity, and the ancient places with today's countries, either as patriotic or enemy countries.

Qian Na   and Ying Yuan   

Rhetorical questions are often interpreted from the semantic, pragmatic, and syntactical perspectives; but their logical function is rarely investigated. This paper, based on the proper interpretation of Aristotle's "enthymeme" or "rhetorical syllogism", attempts to explore the mechanism of RQs' argumentative function, by examining the RQ-rich masterpiece, Liu Xie's The Literary Mind and the Carving of Dragons (¡¶ÎÄÐĵñÁú¡·). The sample analyses reveal that RQs achieve a strong logical function via both suggesting and implying the propositions (often major premise and conclusion), as well as providing the solid argument (as minor premise). Also, our enthymematic analyses prove that the RQs' logical function is meanwhile accompanied by salience of the suggested conclusion or major premise, the assertion or assumption transformed from the question itself. This inquiry highlights the argumentative function of rhetorical figures and enriches Western rhetoric notions in Chinese classics interpretation.

Ekaterina Zvereva   and Kamo Chilingaryan   

The issue of functioning of derived prepositions in modern speech is of special interest for linguists, since the semantic and behavioral features of these words are less studied than their formal characteristics. In addition, prepositions not only exist in the system of parts of speech, but also in linguistics used to be seen as 'empty words' in the sense that no special studies of the functional and semantic features of a preposition were conducted in linguistics: prepositions were studied as a whole, as a class of words. In many respects this is due to the fact that special approaches are required for their study, taking into account the specifics of this syncategorematic word, which includes not only words of different structures, but also transitional forms, different in time of occurrence and degree of receiving a preposition.

Lixia Wang   

Philip Roth is one of the most well-known and prolific writers in contemporary America, and I Married A Communist is the masterpiece of his reflections on American society at large. Set against McCarthyism in the 1950s, I Married A Communist displays Roth's contemplation of the relationships among Communism, whiteness and American democracy, and especially that between the latter two. Whiteness, based on racial differentiation and exclusion, exposes the inherent contradiction of American democracy. On the one hand, American democracy strives for equality, liberty and individual rights for all its citizens, but on the other hand, whiteness reveals various inequalities and injustices. To some extent, whiteness is complicit with American democracy, and Communism makes that complicity explicit.

Xie Mengling   and Lu Jie   

Yu Xuanji's Poems were translated into the Anglophone World by Jeanne Larsen, Kenneth Rexroth and Ling Chung, Kang-i Sun Chang and Haun Saussy, Justin Hill and Genevieve Wimsatt. This essay mainly focuses on cultural filtration and compensation strategies in these translated versions. Inadequate understanding is the main cause for cultural filtration. This essay analyzes inadequate understanding for Chinese literary tradition, Chinese culture, Chinese language and Chinese ancient society. Translation of literal meaning with notes, translation of implicated meaning with notes, juxtaposition of implicated meaning and literal meaning and paraphrase embedded in text were adopted by these translators to compensate the cultural filtration. The research on the cultural filtration and compensation strategies in these translated versions helps translators to recognize that knowing Chinese culture and Anglophone culture adequately and taking appropriate compensation ways are crucial for the translation of Yu Xuanji's poems.

Brahmi Mohamed   Mahieddine Rachid   and Bouhania Bachir   

This paper explores the linguistic behavior in relation to the identity of speakers who stay in their hometown and speakers who travel from one dialect region to another. Following the methodology of sociolinguistic variation studies, combined with qualitative analyses, this study examines two noticeable linguistic features of Tiaret compared to those acquired by speakers who moved to other dialect areas. Qualitative analyses of speakers' social identities, attitudes and language practices match quantitative analyses of patterns of phonological variation. The study finds that the migrant groups do make changes in their linguistic production due to their continuous exposure to a new dialect. Moreover, the findings suggest that speakers' linguistic behavior is noticeably related to their identities, social networks, language attitudes and the wider sociopolitical framework in the whole country.

Li-li Wu   

The English suffix -er has long been considered as a morpho-syntactic diagnostic for split intransitivity since -er nominals are derived only from verbs that have external arguments. Therefore, the formation of an -er nominal derived from an intransitive verb should be based on an unergative verb (a verb that has an external argument) instead of an unaccusative one (a verb that has an internal argument). As split intransitivity is syntactically represented but semantically determined, the formation of -er nominals is actually semantically predictable. Two approaches in the literature, the projectionist and gradient approach, give a detailed explanation for the semantic constraints on determining a verb' argument as either external or internal. Compared with the projectionist approach, the gradient approach seems to offer a better account to predict some verbs are more consistent in forming an -er nominal while others exhibit variation.

Mengmeng Tang   

English and Chinese are different in the composition of Multi-verb Constructions (MVCs), which refer to a series of verbs appearing in a mono-clause, without pauses or conjunctions. English MVCs contain a finite verb which inflects with tense, combined with non-finite forms (e.g., The boss encouraged Jerry to attend the meeting). Chinese MVCs are in the form of bare verbs or verbs with aspectual morphemes. From the perspective of finiteness, this article analyzes the typological differences of morphological finiteness in English and semantic finiteness in Chinese.

Mousa A. Btoosh   

This study presents a corpus-based investigation of how Arab students of English use modality in academic writing. Although the primary focus of the study is on the writing of Arab L2 learners, regular comparisons have been conducted with native-speakers ' writing with the aim of delineating the areas of similarities and differences between the two groups (leaners and native speakers). Furthermore, in an attempt to check whether the features characterizing the use of modality in Arab L2 academic writing is part of a general tendency or an idiosyncratic creation that exclusively applies to Arab students of English, results have been frequently checked against some other relevant studies. The study reveals a gap between native speakers and learners in terms of the frequency count of the modals used. Findings also show that many of the modality features used in the learner corpus reflect a general tendency on the part of most L2 learners. Yet, some other features, including the overuse of 'must', 'can' and 'should' and the underuse of the epistemic modals 'may', 'might', 'would', and 'could', are likely to be attributed to both learners' general tendency and L1 rhetoric, where certainty-oriented and collectivistic-oriented styles prevail.

Khair Ul Bashar   Alam Zeb   and Hakeem Khan   

This paper demonstrates how a critical reading of Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men reveals oppression on female character and unequal gender relationship. The paper attempts to examine Curley's wife with regard to feminist approach. Steinbeck has viewed only single female character in the novel as a devil incarnation, a symbolic Eve who burnt lives of men in paradise. The paper interprets the novel from Derrida's theory of Logocentrism which provide framework for the author to correspond in underlying logical assumption. It could be seen that the characterization of Curley's wife is not complimentary in the novel rather more of derogatory. She has been subjected to numerous fixed features of stereotyping by the ranchmen. Her tragic death has been justified as the only logical reason for bringing stability in men's world. The paper has intended to go through the issue of gender discrimination much more profoundly and has found the dominant viewpoint which has hijacked the whole atmosphere of the novel and certain group of characters has assigned fixed roles for woman and his roles for in society and family.

Manal A. Ismail   

The study examines the clitic [-ki] as it occurs in the second person feminine singular object/ possessive pronoun suffix of stem final consonants in the speech of Saudis of Arabic Najdi dialect. The phonetic realization of this morphosyntactic marker in post-consonantal position as [-ki] does not accord with Najdi dialect nor with the supralocal variant. The analysis of the clitic [-ki] in Najdi Arabic is based on the occurrence of the form in the informal speech of young Saudi women and men in three peer groups in naturally occurring settings. The data reveals that subjects alternated between the realization of the post-consonantal second person feminine clitic as [-ki] and the vernacular form [-i?], whilst apparently resisting supralocalization pressures and diverging from supralocal norms. Men appeared to be the leaders in this direction of change. The research aims to stimulate further empirical investigation into the effects of morphophonemic divergence on sociolinguistic variation and language change as well as contributing to the area of language and gender.

Daniele Borgogni   

The article focuses on the dialectic relationship between visual and verbal representations in Renaissance emblematics, a multimodal genre in which words and images were inherently interactive and physiologically intermingled. Devices and emblems were "assemblages" of different modes and mediums, full of rhetorical wit and sophisticated allusions, and made the most of their appealing mix of discourse and representation to provide a practical moral lesson together with learned amusement. The article tries to discuss and revise these well-known aspects from a stylistic and cognitive perspective, relying on the analytical tools provided by Relevance Theory and Conceptual Integration Theory in the belief that such synergetic approach to emblematic texts is particularly rewarding to highlight the ideological implications of the unprecedented power attributed to the relation between images and language in the Renaissance. In particular, the article underscores the ideological dimension of emblematics, in a period rife with political and social tensions, and tries to draw attention to the ways in which this symbolic form of communication was transformed into an Althusserian practice of interpellation, interrogating the authority of the speaking subject and producing changing patterns in its relationship with the reader.

Kadri Krasniqi   

For centuries, language researchers, theorists, linguists, educational psychologists, and an ocean of scholars have agreed that language and culture are closely related and affect each other in so many ways. They support each other in so many sensitive situations, they complement each other on many occasions, they reflect each other on many aspects, and they protect each other through conflicts and wars. Above all, for centuries, they somehow managed to survive by being inseparable; 'like the skin and flesh of our body'. The meanings of a particular language anywhere in the world represent the culture of a particular social group. Therefore, without having direct access to its language, it is impossible to understand its culture, tradition, beliefs, values and customs of that particular social group. This is because of their intimate connection or bond they have singularly and together. Learning a language, therefore, is not only learning the alphabet, the letter sounds and the shapes, the meaning, the grammar rules, and the structure or arrangement of words, but it is also learning the behavior of the society and its cultural customs. Thus, language teaching should always contain some references to the culture. On the one hand, we are thankful to the language that provides us with important tools we use to express and communicate our thoughts and ideas on a daily basis. On the other hand, we are also thankful to the values and customs of our culture in the countries we live and grow up in the shape or construct the way in which we think and behave to a certain degree. The main purpose of this paper is to identify some of the characteristic relations or bonds that exist between any language and culture in anywhere in the world, with reference to Albanian language and culture.

Aditya Angiras   

ETHICS, precisely, is a rational enquiry in to the standards of righteous and wrongful actions to decide which are superior and inferior, in relation to the character and conduct. These are minimum standards for righteous living which are accepted by a class of individuals with higher understanding and are socially approved by everyone. In the context of Kabir, this kind of study falls under the category of "conduct" which was practiced by him under the supervision and guidance of a "Trained Guru" who is known to be a moralist and is a competent authority to guide his disciple on the righteous path of life by making him aware about the difference between vices and virtues. In other words, the trained disciple is the moral perfectionist who is not deluded by any of the vices. Kabir, one of the prominent medieval versifiers has been making clarion calls about carrying out the conduct in a righteous way. He, himself, not only conducts himself on the righteous and uncritical path of life but also talks uniquely about the virtues of life undauntedly in vivid colors which are to be followed by each one in his/ her life. An attempt has been made through this paper to see and analyze those moral principles that were propagated by Kabir through his poetry.

Ya-Shu Chen   

Educational theory often points out that in order to improve the effectiveness of teaching, the teacher has to allow students to take the initiative and actively participate in the learning process. Therefore, in the four traditional teaching methods, "speaking" and "writing," compared to "reading" and "listening," reap greater teaching effectiveness. This paper suggests that if the teacher combines "performance" with listening, speaking, reading and writing, and also adds various other forms of participation to his/her teaching, the teaching results will be much better than the traditional four methods. Take "children's literature" in this study as an example. Students are required to take the text as the basis for adaptation and performance. The results show that although the students originally were difficult to understand the passages through reading, through a variety of performances during the "implementation" of the practice, they have been able to slowly read into the text and see the meaning. Dewey's "learning by doing" theory is thus proved.

Nora F. Boayrid   

This study analyzed the language of resistance in the poems of three Palestinian poets, namely, Samih Al-Qasim, Mahmoud Darwish, and Tawfiq Zayyad. The analysis incorporated Van Dijk's (1997) approach to Political Discourse Analysis (PDA). The elicited linguistic features from PDA were analyzed against Van Dijk's (1993, 2005) Ideological Square Model and Johnson's (1987) Containment Schema. From the perspective of Van Dijk's (1993, 2005) ideological square model, the study found that the poets' expressions of resistance can be presented under the positive self-representation and negative other-representation with varying referents (i.e. Palestine, Palestinians, or Israelis). The analysis from Johnson's (1987) containment schema showed that the poets' political position has an influential role in their expressions of resistance and their views of themselves in relation to Palestine, Palestinians, and Israelis.

Enyao Li   

Synonyms, as an important part of English vocabulary, have always been a key but difficult point in EFL (English as a foreign language) teaching. In the traditional vocabulary teaching, teachers mainly distinguish synonyms via describing, translating and explaining with examples in the dictionary. However, most dictionaries can only provide separate word meanings and limited examples without explaining the different usage and meanings of the synonyms. Therefore, drawing upon Sinclair's model of extended lexical units (ELUs) and employing a corpus-assisted approach to the study of synonyms preserve and conserve, this study tries to analyse the similarities and differences of these synonyms from the perspectives of their frequency, colligation, collocation, semantic preference and semantic prosody. The findings show that corpus-assisted approach is more effective, objective and reliable in distinguishing synonyms and a number of implications can be concluded in English language teaching, learning, testing and research.

Mahasen Hasan Abu-Mansour   

This paper shows that the failure of names related to glide-medial and glide-final roots to form Pattern I C₁aC₂C₂uuC₃ hypocoristics is due to the effects of the OCP and syllable structure constraints, respectively. Names related to roots with medial [w] fail to form Pattern I hypocoristics since the sequence -wuu- violates the OCP. Names related to glide final roots [y] or [w] form C₁aC₂C₂u hypocoristics where the deletion of the final glide avoids violation of syllable structure constraints in the language. The Optimality-Theoretic account in this paper demonstrates that there is only one native pattern of hypocoristic formation in Makkan Arabic with two manifestations, C₁aC₂C₂uuC₃ and C₁aC₂C₂u. Syllable structure constraints and the OCP account for the apparent differences between these two forms. Data from Makkan Arabic hypocoristic formation show that native speakers can factor out the root consonants from the actual name and use them in hypocoristic formation.

Rawiah S. Kabrah   

Syncope is a pervasive phenomenon in Arabic, in general. In Makkan Arabic in particular, syncope occurs both in careful speech as well as in fast speech. This paper examines syncope in fast speech where it applies to initial syllables in words giving rise to syllables that contain complex onsets which are otherwise prohibited in the language. It further examines the phonotactic constraints that play a role in the application of syncope as well as the constraints that can block syncope in the same environments. Other Arabic dialects that manifest the same behavior of syncope in fast speech are considered. The analysis of the Makkan data is done within the framework of Stratal-Optimality theory. The paper lends evidence to the fact that postlexical level includes the level of careful speech and that of fast speech each with its own ranking of constraints.

V¨ªctor Parra-Guinaldo   

One of the most controversial questions with respect to the Itinerarium Egeriae is its author's provenance, and whether this can be determined on linguistic grounds. The purpose of this paper is twofold: 1) to provide a central synopsis and account of previous relevant work that has been conducted on the manuscript; and 2) address one of the most contested and controversial questions with respect to whether its origin can be determined on linguistic grounds. In this paper, I revisit this conundrum by addressing two major flaws I find in the methodology employed to date: 1) the Romanisms sought after are for the most part only either hispanisms or gallicisms; and 2) the scrutiny of the data is not rigorous enough, since these are usually selected merely on the basis of lexical resemblance with modern reflexes, disregarding the fact that many of these may not even qualify as regionalisms in the first place. I resolve this problem by following Adams's (2007) shrinkage theory, where the only plausible regionalisms are innovations, namely those terms that can only be found in texts later than the Classical period; but I disagree with his view on Egeria's provenance as the problem would remain inconclusive, and I demonstrate that there is compelling evidence for an Iberian origin.

Jiayu Wang   and Yi Zhang   

This study examines how academic writers use lexical cohesion (LC) in research articles (RAs) and what the features of LC are, since the appropriate use of LC promotes the coherence of academic discourse. Through stratified random sampling, 30 articles were selected from Applied Linguistics. With the adoption of Coh-Metrix and manual coding, the analysis found that repetition was overwhelmingly-used (91%) in scholarly journal writings, whereas hyponymy was adopted least, only occupying 1% collectively. Moreover, the use of LC significantly related to the structure of RAs, that is, Introduction, Methodology, Results and Discussion/conclusion (IMRD) ( = 29.476, p = .000 < .05). LC, as a whole, is most frequently-used in Introduction. The adoption of repetition, synonymy, and meronymy significantly related to IMRD structure. Furthermore, it is assumed that synonymy is prone to be context-dependent, in the meanwhile, hyponymy and antonymy are content-oriented. Ultimately, it is hoped that the ways concluded to use LC can help writers build coherent discourse in academic writings.

Rogelio A. Banagbanag   

This study investigated the lexical variations in Inabaknon as used by three generations of speakers, the old, middle-aged and young. The ethnolinguistic type of investigation was employed using Speech Elicitation Guide and a Word Checklist to collect the language data needed in the study. The most number of words collected were common to all the three generations of informants. The old generation had more unique words or words that they alone used than the other two generations. Some of the words were of Spanish and Samarnon origin and Catholicism had a great influence on the language. The middle generation shared most of their vocabularies with the old and the young generations. The language of the young generation is influenced by their exposure to the different technological media. They had also the most number of absent Inabaknon lexicon. Some of these are words they can understand but are no longer active in their vocabulary. Some words are already unintelligible to the youth.

Marta Garc¨ªa-Sampedro   

This article introduces "Learning Outside the Classroom", a project based on the use of cultural heritage elements as resources or contexts to foster primary and secondary students? oral communication skills in English as an additional language. The main objectives of the project have been to improve students? oral communication level in the English language, to get to know the school¡®s surroundings and learn about the cultural heritage in the area, to develop a taste and an appreciation for art and heritage and to improve students' and teachers' motivation. Most of the activities have been carried out in non-formal spaces such as museums, art galleries, parks or historical buildings. The methodology used in the research of this project, which has been led by the Education Sciences Department at the University of Oviedo, allowed the author to assess and validate its design. This qualitative research has been based on Lewin's action-research principles: Planning, action, observation and reflection. The tools put to use have been the ethnographic observation (participant and non-participant) and the discussion groups. The observation results have shown an increase in students' and teachers' motivation levels due to the use of non-formal spaces and heritage elements as resources. Reflection about the development of the project has provided new guidelines to re-start the action-research process again.

Maicol Formentelli   

The paper describes the address practices reported by students and lecturers from three English-taught master¡¯s degrees organised at a small Italian university where English is used as a lingua franca (ELF) of communication. The main aim of the study is to ascertain whether and how the multilingual and multicultural composition of the ELF classroom influences participants in their choice of address strategies in English. The findings show two main patterns of address in the ELF courses: 1) an asymmetrical, non-reciprocal use of address strategies, in which lecturers take an informal and familiar stance (T-forms), while students tend to express deference and respect (V-forms); 2) a reciprocal, symmetrical use of V-forms that encodes formality and mutual respect. While informality is promoted by lecturers as part of the policies of the master¡¯s programmes, some students and lecturers show resistance to the use of familiar address terms and favour formal strategies to convey respect to the interlocutor. The informants¡¯ comments recorded in the questionnaires reveal that participants¡¯ cultural backgrounds, previous experience in their home universities, and assumptions about the interlocutor¡¯s cultural expectations play a significant role in shaping address practices in ELF academic courses.

Monica Randaccio   

This paper first illustrates the major revisions, such as a new view of society, the nation, and education, introduced by the New Museology or Museum Studies in the 1980s and 1990s. These changes certainly favoured the development of museum audio description. As museum audio description can be included in the new forms of interactivity, the change of paradigm of interactivity in new museums is analysed and examples are given. Then, a general overview of audio description and its process creation are briefly illustrated in their strengths and limitations. This overview anticipates the two complementary studies on museum audio description as multimodal and multisensory translation. Both studies see the museum and its audio description as an interactive multimodal communicative event but the former focusses more on the grammar of multimodality, whereas the latter emphasises aspects of artistic fruition and the importance of a creative and interpretative language. The paper concludes with my analysis of a museum audio description from the British Museum, focussing in particular on cohesion and coherence.

Rodmonga Potapova   Tatiana Agibalova   Nikolay Bobrov   Natalya Zabello   Anastasia Yurashko   and Ekaterina Migunova   

This paper presents the results of analysis of perceptual auditory features enabling identification of drug intoxication states. The aim of the present investigation was to expand a set of personal characteristics of speech associated with the influence of drugs regarding Russian native female speakers. This paper presents preliminary results of the first stage of the investigation, the aim of which was perceptual auditory assessment of rambling speech (speech incoherency) by a set of parameters with regard to drug-intoxicated female speakers (opioid addicts) that can be regarded as distinctive features to be used for identification of drug-intoxicated speakers solely by their speech characteristics. At the present stage of the research, the perceptual auditory analysis method was used to single out the features relevant to drug intoxication identification. Further research is underway to establish automatically detectable acoustic correlates of these features.

Kumon Tokumaru   

Digital Linguistics (DL) is an interdisciplinary study that identifies human language as a digital evolution of mammal analog vocal sign communications, founded on the vertebrate spinal sign reflex mechanism. The evolutionary process of linguistic humans and the in-brain mechanism for linguistic phenomena are the biggest enigma in human history. There is not a single hypothesis with a detailed location/timing or cellular/molecular level explanation. A comprehensive academic boycott against South Africa (1960s-1990s) gave rise to international academics overlooking a plethora of modern human archaeological sites and artefacts in that country, and the sensor-motor synaptic connection hypothesis on the neocortex for linguistic circuit hides the true mechanism. Pavlov [1927] had observed counter-evidence for the cortical synaptic connection hypothesis for conditioned reflexes. Although he did not report it like that in his lectures, he expressed his expectation to be corrected by subsequent generations. DL hypothesized inside the ventricular system immune cell networks for linguistic processing and mechanism of meaning. There are B-lymphocytes floating inside Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF), which function as conceptual devices and network with epitope terminals of CSF-contacting neurons (CSF-CN) on the ventricle wall and of Microglia on the neocortex. Lymphocytes are evolved neurons which do not require fixed synaptic connections for networking, but they network in a mobile-ad-hoc manner with antigen/antibody terminals on the membrane surface. A mobile hypothesis of distributed and autonomous mobile neural networks fulfills the requirements for linguistic processing and intelligence. As sign reflex is involuntary and an ego-centric reflex mechanism, linguistic humans have to overcome its restrictions to enhance our linguistic ability and intelligence.

Mohammad Almoaily   

The current study attempts to discover English as a Foreign Language (EFL) distance learning male students¡¯ awareness of email greetings as a politeness strategy in English computer-mediated communication (CMC). To this end, 200 email messages sent from distance learning students at King Faisal University, Saudi Arabia, to their graduation project supervisor were analyzed. The degree of formality of these messages was very high for two main reasons. First, all of the email messages comprised instances of first-time contact with the supervisor. Second, the social distance between the students and their supervisor was high. Hence, the students were expected to use formal email greetings. The emails sent by the analyzed sample were put into three categories: begun with formal greetings, started by informal greetings, and null-greeting emails. Contrary to expectations, only 16.5% used formal English email greetings. The remaining students chose religious greetings (20.5%), less formal greetings (7%), or null greetings (56%). The large number of null greeting emails suggests that the students¡¯ awareness of greetings as a politeness strategy was low. Hence, the study concluded with implications to ensure increasing EFL students¡¯ awareness of politeness strategies in CMC.

Zhang Pinggong   

French feminist Luce Irigaray takes up some essential conceptions of post-structuralist thinkers as a start-point, and advances arguments on the logical oppositions based on male and female dichotomy. According to Irigaray, this dichotomy is explicitly related to language. In order to subvert discursive hegemony of patriarchy, it is imperative for women to invent and utilize a language strikingly different from that of the male. This innovative language, also known as "parler femme" or space of the "other", can be employed to construct women's subjectivity. Irigaray prioritizes language over social conscious and ideologies, considering physical and spiritual difference between women and men as instrumental for women's sovereignty and identity. And women's subjectivity can only be constructed on gender difference. Through a language by women, of women and for women, their subjectivity, intellectual enlightenment, cultural conscious, individual improvement, sexual harmony allowing diversity as well as gender equality can reasonably be materialized.

Shu-Chin Su   and Tang Ling   

This research aimed to investigate whether the implementation of "English Songwriting" as a teaching activity could increase students' learning attitudes. The researcher noted the challenges while the research was carried out and provided solutions for the study. Action research was conducted with 110 students from a private university in Taiwan as participants. It spanned for two semesters with two instances of English songwriting activities.[1] Data collection instruments included both the students' reflections and their levels of satisfaction toward the English songwriting activities before, during, and after teaching. Qualitative methodology was used to analyze whether English songwriting was able to improve the students' attitudes on English learning through their opinions, feedback, interviews and satisfaction questionnaires. The findings showed that all of the students completed the task of English Songwriting, and most of the students did the work in a joyful and serious manner. Results showed that this activity increased students' English vocabulary and motivation for learning. Other abilities also developed such as teamwork, communication, appreciation of peers' talents in writing lyrics and songs, brainstorming, creativity and research work. The contents of the songwriting could also be a first step to have a better understanding of students' psychological and emotional status. The researcher provided suggestions for English teaching and recommendations for future studies based on the results.

Wang Jing   

John Banville, one of Ireland's most serious and gifted writers, shares the belief of modernist writers that the modern society alienates mankind through its chaos, madness and sterility, but denies the fatalist idea that this society is hopelessly doomed. He, therefore, pursues a romantic quest in his fiction by resorting to nostalgia, nature and imagination. This thesis will study Banville's fiction from a Romantic perspective, aiming to reveal how Banvill returns to Romanticism and pursues a romantic quest. By examining his various books, this thesis will discuss how Banville looks for a spiritual home by writing about nostalgia, nature and highlighting imagination. It concludes that the utopian world created by Banville for his protagonists, cannot solve all problems in reality. However, it provides an ideal, a belief towards a sublimate life, which helps mankind bravely face the real world and provides hope. Banville imagines a better world in his fiction; and if imagined, this world might in time actually come to be.

Sheue-Jen Ou   

Cognitive linguists believe that the proto-languages use the body as a reference to determine the environmental orientation, such as up and down, inside and outside as well as entrance and exit. However, there is lack of studies examining whether these theories are consistent with the views of the language users, such as the general public. This paper attempts to investigate the "Embodied Mind Theory" in cognitive linguistics by surveying the public view of Chinese ³Ô Chi 'Eating' verb phrases in Taiwan. In addition, this paper also aims to shed the light on the possible links between embodied neurobiological pathways of eating and Chinese eating verb phrases.

I-Chin Nonie Chiang   

Nine Principles for Deep Knowledge (PDKs) have been identified as an effective method to expand an individual's Habitual Domains (HDs), which in a broader sense improves learning. This study examines the relationship between Principles of Deep Knowledge and two classical variables, i.e. Integrative Orientation and Motivational Intensity (a.k.a. effort), as well as investigates the relationships among these three constructs and English learning achievement. A total of 194 tertiary education students participated. Overall, the results suggested that the three tested variables correlated and can predict achievement, with more than half of the subscales of Principles for Deep Knowledge. Further analysis showed that Integrative Motivation and Motivational Intensity can predict learning achievement whereas Deep and Down, Alternating and Changing, and Transforming principles can predict Integrative Orientation. Deep and Down and Contradiction can predict Motivation Intensity. The findings show the potential status of PDK as a new alternative measure and predictor, closely relating with the other two constructs. Limitations, pedagogical suggestions, and future study areas are given at the end of this study.

Ying Yuan   and Yan Jiang   

This essay attempts to demonstrate, via surveying 10 classics in the history of rhetoric, that "ornament" collocated with rhetorical figures is widely viewed as inventional or argumentative, especially from ancient Greece to the Renaissance. Further, 5 representative dictionaries illustrate that this term gives priority to useful function in and before the medieval time but turns increasingly aesthetic from the Enlightenment downwards. In a historical-linguistic perspective, the semantic change of "ornament" is discovered to involve two tendency types: "Narrowing" and "Pejoration", which can be attributed to psychological or cognitive factors, cultural impact and language contact. This rectification of "ornament" justifies from etymology and history of rhetoric that rhetorical figures, deserving a fairer repute, are indeed our flashing argumentative equipment.

Valentina Napoli   

New Zealand writer Maurice Gee would have been 11 or 12 when his mother, Lyndahl Chapple Gee (Harriet Gee's penname), published the children's picture book Mihi and the last of the Moas: the Adventures of Mihi, a little Maori boy, with the very last of the Moas,in 1943. The book is written in verse of the nursery-rhyme variety (paired quatrains in lines of somewhat irregular metre and length) and illustrated by Lyndahl herself with half-a-dozen delicate watercolours and pen-and-ink drawings. Kathryn Walls defined it as the New Zealand version of Kipling's Jungle Book. The story is set in a vaguely designated location in pre-european Aotearoa, New Zealand. The only human character of the story is Mihi, a little M¨¡ori boy orphaned when his family is killed by an invading tribe, who is cared for by the creatures of the forest and befriended by the last living moa, who takes him away to live with him in his underground cave, from which, when he becomes ill, Mihi rescues him by building a raft and rowing him out through a long secret tunnel into the sun. The purpose of this article is to read Chapple Gee's children story through postcolonial lens, analysing how the wiping out of Mihi's family and tribe by invaders can be interpreted as a metaphor of the British colonisation of New Zealand. This is clearly evident in the representation of the happy and peaceful life of Mihi's tribe before the invasion: "New Zealand was Maoriland then/ no white man had come, with his musket and drum/ to fight with the brown-skinned men" [1, p.5], in contrast with the murders and devastation following the arrival of the enemies. The aim of this article is also to attempt a reading of Chapple Gee's story in an ecocritical frame. The environmental topic permeates the story and it emerges in an indirect, allegorical form, through a fable about the survival of the last moa, an extinct New Zealand native bird. The character of Mihi, the M¨¡ori boy, represents New Zealand indigenous people's spiritual relationship with the natural environment as well as their role as kaitiaki, guardians of natural resources.

I-Chin Nonie Chiang   

This paper reports the effect of additive assigned extracurricular reading at the tertiary level of education in Taiwan. Chiang [1] implemented additive assigned reading after school in a college English course and used the General English Proficiency Test for the measurement of students for three consecutive academic years. The pre-/post comparison showed significant gains over all three years. The current study repeated the procedure and reported on the 4^th and the last year from of study before course reform took place. The results continuously showed significant improvement in GEPT scores between the pre-/post- tests. Implications of the results for potential factors such as reading amount and frequency are discussed.

Mufleh Salem Alqahtani   

This paper discusses the role of metathesis and vowel epenthesis in Arabic loanword adaptation in Sabzevari, a Persian vernacular spoken in the Sabzevar area of Northeast Iran. This role is accounted for using the framework of Optimality Theory (OT). The purpose of this paper is to elaborate the extent to which metathesis and vowel epenthesis, as repair strategies, are used for adapting Arabic loanwords in Sabzevari in the light of OT. This study mainly relies on data taken from extant literature including books, articles and theses. In addition, some videos on YouTube peculiar to this dialect and its speakers are taken into consideration for verifying data already harvested from the literature. The conclusion of the paper is that metathesis and vowel epenthesis are motivated by word-final clusters in Arabic loanwords that constitute Reversal Sonority, as a manifestation of Sonority Sequencing Violation. Metathesis targets word-final clusters in Arabic loanwords of the forms /plosive+fricative/ and /fricative+lateral/ while word-final clusters in Arabic loanwords of the forms /fricative+ rhotic/, /stop+nasal/, /stop+ liquid/, /nasal+ rhotic/, /stop+ nasal/, and /fricative + nasal/ are not immune to vowel epenthesis. OT is shown in this study to be a framework which is capable of analysing metathesis and vowel epenthesis with regard to Arabic loanwords in Sabzevari.

Stefano Vittori   

Two poetic passages of the 'Dialogue between a Man and his Ba' arise problems both in interpretation and in translation: jw mt m ?r.j mjn mj kft pt; mj z z?t-A1- jm r ?mt.n.f (cc. 138-140) and wnn ms nty jm ??? m wj3 ?r rdt d.t stpwt jm r r'w-prw (cc. 143-145): the literal translation of these passages is problematic: "Death is for me today like an unveiling of the sky, like a man + (I acquire? who acquires?) + there + (according to? More than?) He ignores"; "Indeed, who will be there will be standing in (Ra's) boat, allowing that someone gives the offerings there + towards? + the temples". Integration of the verb dd, "to say", would transform the former passage into a direct speech and solve the problem: "Death is for me today like an unveiling of the sky, like when a man says: 'I will profit from it' about something he ignores". This integration induces to interpret in the same way also the ?r of latter passage: "Indeed, who will be there will be standing on (Ra's) boat, saying: 'There is where one makes offerings be given to me' about temples", shedding better light on the sense of the adverb jm and the preposition r. Metric and rhetoric reasons support the integration in the former passage.

Jefwa G. Mweri   

The study of phonology is concerned with the contrastive units of language whether these contrastive units are based on an audio language (like spoken languages) or a visual language (like signed languages). Spoken languages have as their smallest contrastive units' contrastive sounds while visual languages have articulatory properties as their contrastive units. The term phonology as a general scientific concept is used in sign language studies to refer to the study of those physical properties of signs whose contrasts lead to meaningful differences among signs Okombo et al [2]. The major distinguishing physical properties in KSL just like in other sign languages include: Hand shapes or hand forms (articulators), movement or motion (manner of articulation), location (place of articulation), and palm orientation (manner of articulation). These four articulatory properties of KSL together are referred to as manual signs where signs are physically produced by the hands and other parts of the body. However, often times manual signs have to combine with non-manual signs to make meaning. We can also add two more articulatory parameters to the ones above. That is, Non manual signs and the signing space. The above parameters can be viewed as the articulatory properties of a sign. According to Okombo et al, the actual nature of the sign depends on what the hand which performs the role of an active articulator does. It is also important to note that during the production of signs, they may influence each other and therefore determine sign order variation. This influence and subsequent variation in sign order is as a result of some phonological processes. A phonological process changes the appearance of an utterance by following well defined rules in phonology, but does not change the meaning of the utterance Vogler and Matexas [3]. In this paper we examine the articulatory properties of KSL or those physical properties of signs in KSL whose contrasts lead to meaningful differences among signs and also examine how signs in KSL influence each other and how this influence and subsequent variation in sign order is as a result of some phonological processes. We shall examine such phonological processes in KSL.

Suliman Mohammed Nasser Alnasser   

The area of language policy and planning in educational settings has been attracting increasing attention in recent years. This study reports on an investigation into the beliefs of Saudi Arabian higher education department members concerning English Language Policies (henceforth ELPs). The focus was on their beliefs about ELPs outside the domain of the classroom and at department level. In these departments, English is normally used in a variety of department communication situations. The subject of how ELPs should be shaped and practised from staff members' perspectives has not yet been addressed in the literature. A mixed-method approach to data collection was adopted for this study. A total of 216 members of English departments from different regions (northern, southern, middle, western and eastern regions) and of different ranks (teaching assistants, lecturers, assistant professors, associate professors and full professors), specialities and genders participated in the study. An online survey comprising a background section and eight questions was provided, and 208 participants responded to it. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven male chairmen and one female vice chair. The findings of the study suggest that members of English departments have strong beliefs about ELPs and that they perceive such policies to be important and would therefore prefer them to be made explicit and official. It was also found that members favour a systematic department policy making process rather than adopting already designed policies from other parties (in other words, they prefer micro-level processing of ELPs). The implications of the findings for other departments and institutions are presented in this paper, as well as the limitations of the current study and recommendations for future research.

I-hao Woo   

Various approaches have been proposed to account for both the atelic and telic readings of a Chinese sentence containing an accomplishment verb when it is modified by the perfective aspect. In this paper, I contribute to the debate by providing a syntactic account, as many studies have indicated that recent linguistic work has demonstrated that syntactic operations are sensitive to the properties of different aspectual verb classes. Specifically, I demonstrate how different types of direct objects may impact the telicity of a sentence and show how this difference is reflected in the syntax. I assume that the computation of telicity is within the functional phrase between vP and VP. Under a spec-head relationship between the verb and the direct object, a sentence has a telic reading when the direct object contains a [+SQA] feature; in contrast, a sentence has an atelic reading when the direct object has a [-SQA] feature.

Sanae Saito   

Japan is a country with over two million officially registered foreigners (Ministry of Justice, 2017) [1], and this number will keep rising, and it could even rise to ten million in the future. The country of Japan has a blossoming multilingual society, where various languages are heard and spoken. Actually, the government settled on a stratagem to promote tabunka kyosei, "many cultures living together" aiming for a multicultural society in 2009. The mystique of Japanese homogeneity, however, is still identifiable. Kado (2016) [2] stresses that linguistic and social isolation that foreign residents experience should be attributable to Japanese "insularity". Furthermore, Kawahara (2007) [3] maintains that language support is essential in multicultural societies to make their lives more sound. This paper attempts to examine possibilities of simplified English to help foreign residents participate in society fully based on the findings of actual conditions of language-support services for them. Interviews with foreign residents living in a middle-sized city were conducted and the comprehensibility of public information in English provided by the local government was examined. The results indicate that most of the respondents show that although the recent automatic translation systems have made public services obtainable in different languages including English, they still experience disadvantages in communicating with Japanese people. The foremost linguistic and cultural barriers they often face include, (1) isolation from the mainstream community; (2) difficulty in understanding Japanese social systems, and (3) educational disadvantages for children such as difficulties in improving academic language skills, loss of their mother language and ethnic discrimination. In order to facilitate language support that meets the needs of foreign residents to help them participate actively in society, the results of the present study suggest that simplified English in support of foreign residents can be enhanced in multilingual Japan.

Qu Changliang   

In Roman Jakobson's phonological framework of language, although distinctiveness of the phonological units (phonemes as well as distinctive features) is most widely known for its nature of "mediacy", i.e. they fulfill the role of meaning differentiation as signifiants that do not have any direct signifi¨¦s, it is their "immediacy" that highlights the last stage of his six-decade-long study of language sound, showing that certain phonological features, mostly non-distinctive, carry direct rather than indirect information that forms an important part of the communication. Features of any linguistic variety may be investigated socio-historically. While the globalized age offers unprecedentedly more opportunities for the English learners in China to be exposed to the English varieties, it is necessary for the English language teaching to give enough socio-historical interpretation to these varieties and their features, especially when they do appear in contemporary popular media. This essay exemplifies the socio-historical role of certain phonological features by illustrating their presence in some typical English films produced in the recent two decades and aims to help understand the cultural implicature of these features so as to offer a bridge to more efficient communication.

Nikolaos-Ion Terzoglou   

A semiotics of architecture should focus on the process of the production of meaning through the articulation and organisation of space (and time). This articulation has, at least, a mental side (conception) and a material side (realisation). However, it would be misleading to try to reduce this double articulation into a formal logic alone (Pierce). Proxemics has convincingly demonstrated that spatial forms are part of social life and that their meaning depends on (and refer to) cultural values. We should study and think of the semiotics of space in the broader context of a semiotics of culture, insofar as its system of signs aims at the production of cultural meaning that is part of a code of social hierarchies and distinctions. In this paper, I propose a preliminary intersection between semiotics, literary theory and modal narratology. To decipher the social values that are inherent in spatial forms we need not only a general theory of their interpretation but also a theory of their manner of telling, their narrative structure, their plot, and how this plot is anchored and activated into specific and determinate social chronotopes. A possible strategy that would allow for the above intersection to take place could be a broad conception of the notion of 'text' that includes 'space' as a narrative process and as a discourse that follows a specific 'narrative grammar'. Therefore, architectural semiotics should lay emphasis on the process of the conception, design and production of spatial meaning as if this process was the writing of a social text, a codification of a narrative in space. In this paper, I will focus on a fragment of this project, examining some of the semiotic correlations and conceptual conjunctions between literature and architecture.

Agnieszka Wawrzyniak   

The aim of the paper is to focus on the conceptual construal of ME happiness in The Canterbury Tales in order to reconstruct the culture in Chaucer's world. The analysis is based on The Canterbury Tales (The British Library Copies edited by Barbara Bordalejo). The paper will refer to the etymology of the lexemes that constituted the concept of mediaeval happiness as well as to their semantic similarities and differences. Furthermore, the attempt is also to juxtapose Middle English and Present Day English concepts of HAPPINESS thereby reflecting on two distinct cultures and hence on two distinct worldviews. In my study I will refer to works by Wierzbicka (1991, 1992) in an attempt to recreate world out of words (Bartmi¨½ski and Tokarski 1993).

Wang Jing   

In The Tattooed Girl, Joyce Carol Oates focuses mainly on the issue of identity, portraying the individual identity crisis and dramatizing racial and class conflicts between the privileged Jews and "white trash", a marginalized white group. This paper will study the issue of crisis and construction of identity in this novel from the following aspects: how the characters struggle with the identity crisis, in what ways they attempt to invent their own identity respectively and whether their attempts succeed. By analyzing the tragic ending of the novel, this thesis will discuss how the recurring theme in Oates's works that whether it is possible to escape one's destiny, manifests in this particular novel.

Cristina Corredor   

In deliberation, the participants' goal is to reach a common conclusion on the best available course of action. The aim of this contribution is to study some deontic aspects that characterize deliberative dialogues as a dialogical (and dialectical) practice. In particular, my exploration is an attempt to consider the way in which deliberation dialogues are structured by virtue of the obligations (commitments, duties) and rights (entitlements, authorizations) that participants assign and recognize each other, on the basis of their performed speech acts. Taking a point of departure in the Austinian approach to speech acts, I will contend that these normative positions, mutually recognized, contribute to determine the illocutionary effect of the utterances and thus the particular speech acts performed in the dialogue. Before that, I will suggest that the proposed claim put forward in a deliberative dialogue can be seen as a verdictive speech act, in that a proposal issues a practical judgement and commits the proponent to giving reasons in support of it. Moreover, whenever an agreement is reached on a proposed claim for action, a new exercitive speech act can be said to have been instituted in which the participants' joint commitment not only concerns the proposal agreed upon, but also the reasons given and the inferential license that connects both.

Aunga Solomon Onchoke   

This paper will try to explore the motivation behind a cultural specific metaphor in Ekegusii onomastics as seen from a cognitive linguistics viewpoint. The study aims to identify and explain the Ekegusii names of people describe their social-cultural values and account for the cognitive processes involved in their interpretation. The data included a list of Ekegusii names collected from a primary school in the heartland of Gusii and discussed by an interview panel of natives combined with the researcher's knowledge, intuitions, experience, and introspection, then they were analyzed using the Cognitive Metaphor Theory of Lakoff and Johnson. The results suggest that interpretations and usage of personal names create mental images, have a meaning, and reflect the culture of the Abagusii people. Also, it is evident that metaphors pervade the lexicon of Ekegusii onomastics and form networks by which they conceptualize people's names in concrete terms as events, evil spirits, achievements, behavior, objects, places, animals, plants and special occurrences. The study concludes by suggesting further research into socio-cultural metaphors and metonymy in onomastics in African and other languages.

Unchalee Singnoi Wongwattana   

This article aims to study morphologically complex words in Tai Khrang spoken in the lower northern part of Thailand to examine their syntactic and semantic associations. Data were collected from Ban Nong Moet (Saen to Subdistrict, Khanuworalakburi District, Kamphaeng Phet Province) and Ban Sa Yai Shi (Nong Sano Subdistrict, Sam Ngam District, Phichit Province) as well as from naturally occurring texts such as local narratives and dialogues on Face book. The result shows that morphologically complex words in Tai Khrang are compounded in two strategies such as syntactic and semi-syntactic compounding strategies. As for the syntactic strategy, it is the most salient word formation in the language that is in a complex and sophisticated manner that could reflect the people worldviews and culture. They are performed in three syntactic categories such as synthetic, verb-verb and noun-noun compounds. The synthetic compounding operates like simple clauses, nominalization, and phrases. The verb-verb strategy displays serial verb constructions. And the noun-noun strategy displays different semantic associations graduating from more to less transparent.

Lee Patterson   

Appearing after the legacy of Language school poetry and its imitators, Kevin Davies' work in his books Comp. and The Golden Age of Paraphernalia, can be read as a development of this poetry and identified with a new current in the form: Post-Language Poetry. To support this thesis, this essay finds value and relevance in Kevin Davies' work as it explores a range of aesthetic, cultural, and political issues. After analyzing concepts of authorial presence, interpellation, site-specificity, and the limits of the performative subject, this essay places a special importance on Althusserian Interpellation to illuminate these parallel issues. The essay concludes that Davies' work both produces codes and interrogates existing codes that render subjective images of the interpellated subject.

Masanori Matsumoto   

This is a preliminary case study on students from a university in Japan learning English as a second language (L2). Three students volunteered to report weekly their motivational changes through a four-week English course provided by a language institute in Australia and to be interviewed twice at the beginning and the end of the course. The results show that learning experience in a new environment could help them develop the "L2 Selves"; however, the same factor they experience both inside and outside the classroom class could affect either positively or negatively their motivation. Also, their motivational intensity does not exhibit a significant change through the course. The study discusses the participants' actual experience of the primary difference in the contents of the English class between Japan and Australia may work positively their learning due to their desire to develop the English proficiency. However, the relationship between their perceptions of environmental factors reflected on their prior learning experiences and their motivational intensity could be more complex than we imagine. There may be a gap between learners' general perception of motivational factors and its influence on the deterioration and the development of motivation to learn.

Yishan Gao   and Yi Zhang   

This paper analyzes the use of a special type of abstract nouns, shell nouns, in two corpora consisted of 60 research articles published by scholars from China and Sweden. The frequency, classes, lexico-grammatical patterns and premodifiers of shell nouns are investigated in this study. The results indicate that though in general Chinese use significantly less shell nouns than their Swedish counterparts, especially in the cognition class of shell nouns, there is no significant difference between the two groups of authors in other classes, lexico-grammatical patterns or premodifiers of shell nouns. A possible explanation for the results is offered from the perspective of genre and discourse community. Pedagogical suggestions based on these findings are also illustrated for the teaching of shell nouns.

Natanela Elias   

The Middle Ages were hardly known for their openness or willingness to accept the other, however, research indicates that things were not quite as they seemed. In this particular presentation, I would like to introduce the possibility of resolving conflict (social, political, religious) via literature, and more specifically, through the use of the popular medieval genre of the dream vision.

Lydia Akuno   Pamela Anyango Oloo   and Magonya Achieng' Lilian   

One of the ways in which people express their emotions creatively in a society is through music. Benga music is a genre of Kenyan popular music that has been in existence from 1960s to date. Over the years, Dholuo benga music has seen artistes of 1970s like Ochieng Kabaselleh, Kasongo, Owino Misiani, and many others, giving way to more recent Dholuo benga artistes of the year 2000s like Atomi Sifa, Madanji Perimeter and Otieno Aloka. Dholuo is a Nilotic language spoken along the shores of Lake Victoria, Kenya. Aspects of language, like metaphorical expressions, usually vary over time due to external and internal influences on a speech community. Variations may also occur depending on different individuals' conceptualizations of emotions. Dholuo benga love songs are characterized by metaphorical expressions of love which are evidence of conceptual metaphors of love as perceived by Dholuo benga artistes over the decades. The aim of this comparative study was to establish similarities and variations in conceptualization of OBJECT OF LOVE AS FOOD by two male Dholuo benga artistes in Kenya, in two different time frames (1970s and 2000s). The study therefore hoped to explain language use in Dholuo benga love songs over time. The study was guided by Lakoff and Johnson (1980) Conceptual Metaphor Theory. The study population comprised a total of ten Dholuo benga love songs. Thirteen metaphoric expressions of love were extracted from lyrics of the ten love songs by Ochieng Kabaselleh and Atomi Sifa. Purposive sampling technique was used to select the love songs with required metaphorical expressions and saturated sampling technique was employed to get the requisite linguistic metaphors of love. The study findings are that there exist similarities and variations in the conceptualization of OBJECT OF LOVE IS FOOD between the 1970s and 2000s male Dholuo benga artistes.

Zhang Pinggong   

This article aims to explore how in the Cave Birds poems Ted Hughes employs innovative poetic strategies to subvert the established and dominant value system of modern humanism and rational determinism. His critical attitude towards dominant value system of secular humanism and scientific determinism is constant, and his criticism about modernity enters a new stage in Cave Birds. The affirmation of what he considers as positive actually involves a good deal of abstraction from the complex predicament of human in modern world. The form of individuality and the wholeness of being that the poet propagates in Cave Birds basically demand a disengagement of consciousness from the outer reality. Through an internal and metaphorical expression of an individual's transformation, his poetic works attempt to defamiliarize the recurrent subject matter of Human-Nature relationship.

I-Chin Nonie Chiang   

This study aims to understand whether students have the ability to interpret the connotation of deep knowledge based on afterschool autonomous learning activities, habitual domains and principles for deep knowledge, and to use deep knowledge principles to analyze the relationship between the common autonomous learning activities and knowledge as well as students' rating on various types of deep knowledge. There were 71 participants in this study, and data were collected from group discussions and written records. The results showed that the students have the ability to understand the connotation of deep knowledge and propose a variety of autonomous learning methods. This study explored how these autonomous learning methods are closely connected to the deep knowledge of habitual domains based on the methods proposed by the students. The author also gave teaching suggestions in accordance with the participants' rating on the deep knowledge.

Tanju Deveci   and Roger Nunn   

For authors to publish their research papers in peer-reviewed journals, it is important to provide a clear rationale for their study, have a strong methodology, interpret their findings effectively, and highlight the contribution of their study to existing literature. However strong these aspects of content may be, it is nonetheless authors' language and communication competence that influence whether or not the message is conveyed to readers successfully. To this end, authors need to be meticulous in sentence construction. Varying sentence complexity is one important consideration in this respect. Although relative clauses play a significant role in sentence complexity, they have received relatively limited attention from researchers investigating academic writing. This case study is an attempt to identify how authors in humanities and social sciences use relative clauses in their research articles. To this end, we investigated their use in research papers in five journals. Our corpus was comprised of 22,801 running words. Data revealed that relative clauses accounted for 40% of the total number of sentences in the corpus. They were more commonly used in the introduction and discussion & conclusion sections. Reduced relative clauses were also generally more common than full relative clauses, with comparatively frequent use in the results section. We also found that the active voice was more dominant than the passive voice in relative clauses in all sections except the methodology, discussion and conclusion sections. We discuss the results from the perspective of transitivity, and offer some recommendations.

Ya-Shu Chen   

English majors in Taiwan mostly are not familiar with American literature, let along American literature in the colonial times. However, should one compare the colonial history of Taiwan in the Age of Exploration with that of America in the similar era by the Dutch, students are more willing to participate in class discussion, their learning attitude has changed from passive to more active, and the result is therefore more rewarding too. The main reason of such a result lies in that, in my opinion, both colonial histories of Taiwan and US are alike, that is, both were discovered by Europeans in the Age of Exploration, and there are similarities between the colonization processes in Tainan, Taiwan, and several Dutch colonies along the east coast of America. The two colonial powers used trade as a means, exchanging mink and deerskin with native Aborigines respectively and eventually led to the abolition of the two indigenous peoples. This study aims at exploring similarities and differences between Taiwan and US colonial histories through examining their colonization processes in detail. I hope that from such a comparison, putting colonial American literature in the context of colonial Taiwan, American literary history may become more interesting to Taiwan Students.

Navid Bayat   

The present study set out to explore the effects of task repetition (TR), unguided strategic planning (USP), and pressured on-line planning (POP) on the accuracy of Iranian EFL Upper-intermediate learners' written production. To achieve this, 90 EFL learners from three intact classes of an English institute were randomly assigned to three experimental groups. All participants in three groups experienced a written narrative task based on a set of six pictures as pre-test, a week prior to the 10-session treatment, two weeks after it as post-test, and for the treatment itself as well. Participants in the first group (TR) were required to write a 150-word narrative based on the pictures they were shown and repeat the performance a week later. In the second group (USP), participants were given 10-minute planning before performing the narrative task. Finally, students in the third group (POP) were asked to perform the task within the time limit of 17 minutes. All participants' performance was then analyzed and measured in terms of accuracy. The findings of the study revealed that repeating the task contributed in improvement in accuracy. In a similar vein, giving students the opportunity for on-line planning resulted in a similar effect on accuracy in their output, whereas no statistically significant enhancement in accuracy was achieved in strategic planning group.

Lei Qiu   

Rappaport Hovav and Levin[1,2] propose the manner/result complementarity (MRC), which predicts the non-existence of verbs lexicalizing both manner and result at a time. Scholars [3, 4] argue against the MRC as a general lexical principle governing the lexicalization patterns of verbs by naming verbs which seem to encode both meaning components simultaneously. One type of counterexample verbs are based on the lexicalization properties of typologically different languages. Following Slobin [5], Shi and Wu [6] suggest that manner and result meaning components exhibit complementary distribution in satellite-framed languages but not verb-framed languages. Though Modern Chinese is generally classified as a satellite-framed language, Old Chinese is regarded as a verb-framed language and the lexicalization patterns of Old Chinese motion verbs are also subjected to controversy. Drawing evidence from motion verbs in Old Chinese, this study tries to answer whether the MRC constrains the possible lexicalization patterns of motion verbs in verb-framed languages. Detailed analysis indicates that though typologically different languages may use morphosyntactic devices specific to the language to differentiate verbs falling into different ontological categories, Old Chinese motion verbs conform to the MRC hypothesis.

Concepci¨®n Parrondo Carretero   

The stigma once imposed upon poor whites (also known by the terms of 'white trash,' 'cracker,' 'red neck,' or 'hillbilly,' among others) still lives on in a specific type of poor, notorious for their laziness, dirt-eating, propensity to criminality, sexual perversity, consanguinity, feeblemindedness, and chronic disease portability. It is through mass media communications that this group has been placed on the margins of a capitalist interest-driven market economy in the hands of the dominant whites who dictate the rules by which all members of society are to abide. It is no longer the account of the traveler or the written text what can be damaging to the public image of a social group, but a much powerful vehicle of communication that attracts large numbers and travels at the speed of light. As an image is worth a thousand words, the visual impact created by TV or the cinema has no equal. This paper aims to examine the social stereotyping and stigmatizing of poor whites (the bad type) in mass media communications through the analysis of two films (Deliverance 1972 and Monster 2003), a documentary (The Wild and Wonderful Whites of West Virginia 2009), and a reality TV series (Here Comes Honey Boo Boo 2012) to ultimately come to the realization that social stigmatizing is very much alive in the United States of the 21^st century.

Qian Wang   

Developing intercultural competence has been increasingly vital in the current college English curriculum reform. Based on data collected in curriculum assessment of English courses for non-language majors together with surveys and interviews, this study, explored critical factors in English curriculum that influence students' intercultural competence with the purpose of promoting effective teaching of intercultural competence and providing empirical evidence for the college English curriculum reform. Results suggested that class engagement, autonomous learning, and teaching methods had significant impacts on the overall level of intercultural competence and its specific dimensions, while the impacts of English language skills and satisfaction rate on intercultural competence were not statistically significant. Besides, students with different backgrounds and campus environments were significantly different in intercultural competence. The findings of this study on the relationships between curriculum factors and intercultural competence shed light on systematic development of intercultural competence in foreign language teaching and improvement of intercultural teaching.

Andr¨¦ Kabor¨¦   

The current study is a comparative analysis of the room symbolism in some Western and African feminist writings, such as Virginia Woolf's A Room of One's Own, Monique Ilboudo's 'Le f¨¦minisme au Burkina Faso: mythes et r¨¦alit¨¦s?', and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's We Should all be Feminists. Thus, this paper tries to shed light on these female writers' projections of feminism by 'decoding' the room images found in their works and by making comparative projections that demonstrate the necessity to make a distinction between African and Western feminisms.

Rosario Pellegrino   

Attempts to reflect on the not always idyllic relationship between language teaching and grammar are not entirely obvious and seem to recur more frequently in the light of recent technological discoveries, which have revolutionized both methods and processes. Starting from the role played by grammar within language teaching, the present study aims to investigate linguistic practices and structural considerations, including the Eclectic approach, which is characterised by experimentation and indeterminateness. This study will consider the underlying dynamics of the action-oriented approach proposed by the CEFR, which, thanks to new technologies, sensitizes learners to the otherness, to the inner workings of the language in communicative, comparative and functional modes as required by the demands of today's new, flexible and computerised society.

Robin Ruowei Yang   

This study analyzes the naturally occurring English word sorry in adult learners' talk in a language classroom and examines its role as a marker for self-negation from the perspective of pragmatic negation. The database for this study consists of 40 hours of video recordings of online tutorials for learning Chinese as a second language at a university in Hong Kong. The detailed analysis shows that to address various types of problematic utterances they make, learners do not always use an explicit negation operator such as no to negate their prior utterances but instead use sorry as an alternative. Rather than being used as a negation of a truth-functional operator for propositions, sorry is prominently used by learners as a device for objecting to a prior utterance in conversational implicature or other aspects of language use related to pragmatic negation. The findings also show that sorry plays a dual role by negating the prior utterance and predicting the next utterance, which may be either by the speaker or by the hearer, for correction. The reason for sorry being used as a marker for negation is discussed, and the study suggests that as sorry is perceived and understood maturely by speakers and hearers in context, it realizes the function of pragmatic negation.

Magonya Achieng' Lilian   

For three decades now, HIV/AIDS undeniably remains one of the leading killer diseases in Sub-Saharan Africa. The same narrative is advanced in the literature by sociologists and epidemiologists where mental images that cognitively represent a true African embodied experience with HIV /AIDS is death and its respective personifications such as HIV/AIDS IS A SNAKE, HIV/AIDS IS A WALKING CORPSE and HIV/AIDS IS GRIM REAPER (cf. Sabatier, 1987, Sontag, 1988, De Waal, 2006 and Magonya, 2012). From the foregoing, it can be said that linguistic studies on cross-cultural variations of the HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphor in posters are relatively few in cognitive linguistics. Furthermore, there is need to undertake scientific investigations on how mental images are psychologically and metaphorically linked to the embodied experience with the pandemic. In this regard, the two fold objectives of this paper are: First and foremost, to study the cross-domain mappings of the HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphors and second to investigate cross-cultural variations of the aforementioned pictorial metaphor. The conceptual framework guiding the study espouses arguments from Lakoff and Johnson (1980) and Lakoff and Turner (1989) on the conceptual metaphor theory (CMT), with specific focus on death metaphors outlined in More than cool reason. A field guide to poetic metaphor, together with K?vesces (2010) arguments on metaphor and variation. The study will employ an analytic research design and data will be collected from 11 purposively sampled websites where a total of 20 posters coined around HIV/AIDS IS DEATH pictorial metaphor were drawn. Using content analysis, data collected from online sources was coded, arranged into themes and analyzed qualitatively. The findings for the study are consistent with K?vesces thesis on the existence of cross-cultural variations in HIV/AIDS IS DEATH conceptual metaphor.

Simiyu Kisurulia   

Humankind is the most rational and manipulative being. Men and women will always look for solutions to problems and issues affecting them. This search for solutions is at the first instance located within the natural sphere. When nature fails to provide adequate answers, human beings often turn to the spiritual sphere for answers. Witchcraft also referred to as sorcery or black magic, falls anywhere between the natural and the spiritual or supernatural. The practice is an age-old one and, according to anthropological studies, cuts across all the continents of the world. This paper concerns itself with the rendition of the practice from a Swahili literary perspective. The analysis aims at attempting to understand the existence of the practice, its social effects and reasons for its persistence in the society. We analyse the practice of witchcraft as depicted in two Swahili works of art namely Kisima cha Giningi/The well at Giningi (Abdulla, 1968) and Hatimayanguniipi?/What is my destiny?(Chipeta, 2010). These two novels present the practice in two different ways thus attracting the attention of the reader to curiously and critically interrogate the whole practice. The two have been purposively selected as they depict the practice and have been subjected to content analysis to unearth the inherent belief concerning witchcraft and the artist's point of view concerning the same. The analysis is guided by realism and social dynamic theory. It is baffling that even with the advancement in science and technology, and even with the more practical solutions offered by major religions of the world, such a vicious practice that simply escapes human understanding still persists. As such, this analysis widens our perception of the practice of witchcraft as a persistent social practice.

Hana A. Daana   

The main purpose of this article is to provide a description of the phonological development in the speech of an Arabic-English bilingual child during the meaningful one-word production stage that is from 7 to 20 months of age. Data presented here are the result of recording sessions of spontaneous and non-spontaneous speech between the child and the author. The record, thus, is representative of the sounds which were produced in a meaningful verbal context. To the author¡¯s best knowledge, data on the phonological development of an Arabic-English bilingual child has not been published before. Therefore, this report may be of interest and value to researchers in the field of child language acquisition in general and bilingual first language acquisition in particular.

Aunga Solomon Onchoke   and Xu Wen   

It has been argued by linguists that language expresses a people's way of life; this paper examines a cultural-specific metaphor in Ekegusii, an African Bantu language in Kenya since a metaphor makes our thoughts clearer, richer with imagery, and, act as a conduit between human mind and culture. A qualitative research design was used in the collection of the metaphors from the two counties of Gusii, Nyamira and Kisii, where 60 native respondents were picked and asked to identify and explain terms and phrases that describe a woman in Ekegusii, describe the social-cultural values and explain the mapping processes involved. The data was analyzed by identifying qualities in the donor domains and mapping them to the recipient domain using the Cognitive Metaphor Theory (CMT). It is clear from the results that in Ekegusii, a woman is perceived as an object, a plant, an animal or the appropriate behavior she exhibits based on the values such as immorality, selfishness, beauty, ugliness, harshness, talkativeness, age, and faithfulness, and also, the cultural background plays an important role in the conceptualization and interpretation of these metaphors. Finally, we recommend more research of metaphors in other languages to enable comparisons.

Alessandra Mattei   

G?zim Hajdari's poetic subject is an exceptional case within the contemporary scenario. He has been spending in Italy his exile from Albania since 1992. Hajdari tries to express a semantic universe able to overpower effectively his readers' literary and cultural identities of reference, by adjusting the classical referents existing in several Mediterranean traditions. He has been always interested in the creation of a new epic, recalling - to overcome without abandoning it - his status of permanent dispatrio through the choice of genres and references, both alluded and manifest. The constant exile, which he and his work live in, is tied to the testimonial obligation of the horrors of dictatorship and the slaughter of an entire intellectual class; it also focuses attention on significant matters of the classical tragic and epic thought - especially the Greek one - and introduces it in the research of a widespread classical style, open to the literary traditions which are far from the Western ones. This aim, pursued by writing Delta del mio fiume [16], leads him to the editorial choices for Erranze series he runs, and to the latest decision to publish his first compendium in three languages.

Tsira Baramidze   

The paper discusses the history of the issue of the ethnogenesis of Georgians. The comparative method of linguistics is universal and applicable to any language family. Like the methods of natural sciences the method is exact and verifiable. At some stages of contemporary linguistics, a crisis arose not because a method has some drawbacks, but because the method was considered to be useless to prove extralinguistic hypotheses by some linguists. As far as such extra-linguistic hypotheses cannot be proven by the comparative method, their authors tend to purposefully discredit comparative studies: I. They devalue the strictness of the method - language families are deliberately grouped into phyla; for instance, Noetic, Nostratic, Boreic, Dene-Caucasian... Hence, members of the Iberian-Caucasian family appeared in different phyla: Kartvelian languages - in Nostratic, Abkhaz-Adyghe and Daghestanian ones - in Dene-Caucasian. II. They ignore the method, linguistic items are qualified as languages and dialects by means of non-immanent marking. III. The comparative method is considered to be a non-universal one for the Iberian-Caucasian languages. IV. They consider the method to be unilateral, it was assumed that the method explained diverging process, however, it could not explain outcomes of convergence. V. The strength and credibility of sound correspondences was questioned; on the other hand, the establishment of secondary sound correspondences was considered possible. By way of a priori acknowledging the above-said, the allogenetic hypothesis was posited to be parallel with the theory of linguistic affinity. The paper analyzes the stages, having preceded the final proving of the Iberian-Caucasian affinity: it presents the research outcomes of the empirical data of the Iberian-Caucasian languages, the hologram principle of the reflection (resp. occurrence) of synchronic sound correspondences in diachrony, theoretical postulates determining the present-day level of the comparative study of the Iberian-Caucasian languages, research achievements and challenges. The detection of regular sound correspondences in the establishment of language affinity is one and not the only objective of comparative studies. Another significant objective of comparative studies is the representation of the temporal-spatial model of the divergence of a parent-language of a family, the establishment of absolute chronology of the existence of a parent-language, the compilation of comparative phetics and grammars, etymological dictionaries, the localization of the homeland of the parent-language-speaking ethnic group, and the reconstruction of proto-culture. Attempts to establish "Dark Ages" in comparative studies periodically occur at various times with various data and make 'obstacles' to linguistics. The paper provides answers to the challenges in the framework of the comparative method. The ethnogenesis of Georgians is determined with respect to its belonging to the Iberian-Caucasian family.

Chen Qi   

The paper analyses the Han Fu's reading preference of contemporary young people in China. A questionnaire on the basis of Yang Xiong's four Fu, including two Big Fu and two Small Fu, and two Tang poems were designed and 200 non-Chinese major undergraduates in two universities were chosen out randomly to answer it. The investigation shows that most of the respondents do not like Small Fu but Big Fu. The author observes three special phenomena respectively in diction and rhythm, understanding, and length, and discovers they are closely connected with the prosperity of Chinese society and with the use of network. Moreover, compared with Han Fu, most of those respondents like Tang poem because of the understanding and length which provides more evidences on the reasons of the special phenomena. The decline of the understanding ability of reading and the lack of reading patience caused by the use of network should be on the alert.

Lai Peng   

Adopting Van Dijk's theory of ideology as theoretical framework, using Fairclough's dialectical-relational approach as CDA methodology, this paper analyzes the language in a novel written by Mo Yan (ĪÑÔ), the Nobel Prize winner in literature in 2012, a writer who is adept at describing the Chinese society. In his earlier novel "The Abandoned Baby" (ÆúÓ¤), he depicted the reality of gender discrimination in Chinese society, aiming to defy traditional ideology and call for gender equality. In order to reveal the dialectical relation between the language he used and the social wrong he tried to address, this paper makes a linguistic analysis of two types of discourse structures in the novel: modality and rhetoric, in terms of their semiotic realization of ideologically based gender discrimination as a social wrong. This linguistic analysis of Mo Yan's literary writing helps to reveal the function of literature which he mentioned after he won the Nobel Prize: to change the society for the better through the use of language. It coincides with the mission of critical discourse studies: to reveal social problems through discourse analysis, thus to raise people's awareness in correcting it.

Bajram Kosumi   

This article examines the style and discourse in prison epistles, a special literary manifestation in the Albanian literature of the late 20^th century. The allegoric and hermetic discourse dominates in these letters. Why does this happen: to hide the thoughts from the censorship of the prison administration (to disorient the censor, authors in general used many words with obscure meanings, and many other allegoric texts, which in reality are hypertexts) or simply for aesthetic and stylistic effects? This is a question which determines the status of the text. In this analysis special attention is given to words in the semantic and stylistic aspects. The focus of attention is especially allegoric and hermetic words and sentences. Decoding the words and sentences, of the allegoric and hermetic discourse, brings to a new light the text itself: whether it is a literary or a referential text. The stylistic analysis method and the critical discourse analysis are used in the examination. The critical discourse analysis is necessitated by the polysemy of the text, which lies always beyond the text and is interrelated with different textual or life contexts.

Felicia Ceau?u   and George Ceau?u   

This article aims to investigate the relationship between thinking and language. In the early years of life, natural language develops in close connection with intelligence, configuring broadly the features of thought. The child's mind has a limited number of reference systems from which it can, through experience, constitute the qualities that underlie the processing of knowledge and the skills formed at the representation level. In maturity, at the same time as the development of thinking, the mind constructs signification and communication procedures that go beyond natural language. The language of a community is a development environment for the individual due to the close relationship between thinking and speech. By summoning various cultural resources, we can conclude that the language contains our image of the world: in this regard, symbolic imagination is stronger than iconic (based on signs and symptoms of visual). We will address the body / psyche problem and not the body / soul from the point of view of the philosophy of mind. Consequently, we will use the scientific themes of body and psyche. Our body is clearly and distinctly perceived by the other bodies and its perception also indicates a direction of exploration of the world from the inside to the outside: my body, the bodies of the others, then the anorganic bodies in the outer space.

Chin-Wen Huang   

Lexicalization and grammaticalization are two of the most important processes in linguistic change (Laurel and Traugott, 2005; Hopper and Traugott, 2003). Spoken Standard Tibetan (SST) offers an example of both these processes applying sequentially to the phrase slob sbyong byed, 'to study; to learn.' This phrase is an instance of a full verb byed becoming a light verb (grammaticalization) after compounding (lexicalization). In Tibetan, three light verbs: byed, rgyag and gtong compete lexically. This lexical competition can be treated under the Lexical Diffusion Theory proposed by Wang (1969; 1979).

Yiqing Liao   and Rong Xiao   

This paper provides a critical review of cross-linguistic empirical research on spatio-temporal association among English and Chinese languages to see if it is possible to render the actual relations between language and reality in a systematic manner. It discusses a selection of relevant studies conducted by scholars within this domain. Hopefully this paper will shed light on the cross-linguistic studies of the relationship between language and thought in mental conceptualization. Implications are also given for future empirical research.

Donald Christopher Risker   

This investigation examined Patricia Nell Warren's gay classic Front Runner as a queer text. Queer theory has been traditionally applied to heterosexual contexts and texts to demonstrate similarities between gay behavior and heteronormative behavior. This investigation applied queer theory to Front Runner to determine what, if anything is queer about being a gay Olympic-level runner. While there is much in Front Runner that relates to American gay culture in the 1970s, this investigation focused on the running passages in Front Runner to assess the effect of applying queer theory to a queer novel. The investigation found that some passages were consistent with heteronormative athletic portrayals, while other passages emphasized the gay protagonist as tough and competitive, as if to establish a hetero-normative machismo for the protagonist. Other passages were simply typical of hetero-normative sport literature.

Kiyong Lee   

The main purpose of this paper is to make some linguistic contributions to an ISO initiative to formulate a standard on the semantic annotation framework of reference, coreference, and other types of anaphoric phenomena in natural language. For this purpose, we first make a brief review of some of the existing coreference annotation (CA) schemes. We then formulate an abstract syntax Asyn_ana for anaphoric annotation on which a variety of concrete syntaxes such as an XML-based concrete syntax Csyn_anaX can be developed to provide an interoperable representation format for the annotation. To satisfy the semantic adequacy of the proposed abstract syntax even partially, we check the possibility of developing formal semantics based on it. Such a semantics may be accepted as a valid application of the proposed annotation scheme. We finally consider the multilingual applicability of proposed ASyn_ana by applying it to Korean, a non-inflectional agglutinating language with pro-drop properties.

Farzaneh Dehghan   and Azita Ajdari   

This study examined how Iranian EFL learners' level of academic self-schema is related to their willingness to communicate (WTC). To this end, 243 female undergraduate EFL university students from Islamic Azad University, Shiraz Branch (convenience sampling) completed two questionnaires, namely, a WTC and a researcher-made self-schema questionnaire. The latter questionnaire was developed based on two types of self-schemas, namely, entity and incremental. Entity self-schema regard ability as fixed or unchangeable while incremental self-schema regards it as improvable and changeable in future. Correlation results (r=0.380, p<0.000) indicated a statistically moderate but significant relationship between self-schema and WTC scores. To measure the predictability of WTC scores on the basis of the two levels of self-schema scores, a linear regression was calculated. The entity R value (0.165) illustrates a low correlation between entity self-schema and WTC while the incremental R value (0.516) shows a moderate correlation between the incremental self-schema scores and WTC. It means that 26.6% of the WTC can be predicted by the incremental self-schema scores. The findings of the present study showed that the incremental self-schema can be an important factor in the EFL learners' willingness to communicate because it is related to choices and actions that affect learning.

Lu Jie   

From the beginning of the 20th century, many Western contemporary literary theories, including formalism, the New Criticism, phenomenology, hermeneutics, reception aesthetics, structuralism, deconstruction, psychoanalysis, post-colonialism and Western Marxism, have been translated into Chinese. Translation of those Western literary theories has undergone four phases in China over a century's travel: the commencement and development from the early 1920s to the late 1940s, the frustration and depression from the late 1940s to the end of 1970s, the recovery and revival from the late 1970s to the late 1990s as well as the sustained development and new turn from the beginning of the 21st Century till now. Translation of Western contemporary literary theories is an indispensable part in modern "eastward transmission of Western learning," therefore, to retrospect and summarize its procedure in China is not only helpful to recognize the value and significance of Western contemporary literary theories in Sino-Western cultural exchanges but also beneficial to rationally reconsider the ways to construct Chinese contemporary literary theories in a new era.

Slimani Khedidja   and Jisheng Zhang   

The Djelfa dialect (DJ) is one of the varieties of Algerian Arabic that is characterized by complicated regressive and progressive assimilatory processes. The current paper addresses some of these assimilatory mechanisms, namely, nasal assimilation, lateral assimilation, /t/ assimilation, devoicing assimilation, emphasis assimilation and guttural place assimilation. The paper offers a straightforward analysis and provides a comprehensive picture of these assimilatory processes within the framework of Optimality Theory (OT), [1] [2], [3] and [4] by means of accounting for the trigger motivating them, which is reflected through the relevant constraints at play and their way of interaction. The paper concludes that regressive assimilation is very pervasive in the dialect as the latter endeavors to abide by IDENT-STEM-ONS (F) and IDENT-ONS (F) as much as possible unless a higher ranked constraint is endangered. Moreover, the paper lends support to McCarthy and Prince's (1995) claim that root faithfulness outranks affix faithfulness as DJ prefers to keep stem segment features intact at the expense of affixes' feature change.

Yasemin G¨¹niz Sertel   

Socialist-feminism discusses the subordination and victimization of women in relation with men, the capitalist structure of the society, its institutions, the hegemonic patriarchal culture and history. Marsha Norman as a contemporary American feminist playwright portrays the position of women as victims of the societies they live in her plays. This study aims not to analyze Marsha Norman's plays in a detailed manner, but the purpose of this work is to give an introductory knowledge about Norman's female characters in her plays Third and Oak, Loving Daniel Boone, Sarah and Abraham and Circus Valentine by discussing their oppression in relation with the historical, cultural and social perspectives which are the main points of discussion in the Socialist-Feminist Theory.

Mark Shiu-kee Shum   and Dan Shi   

The current paper aims to introduce the 'Reading to Learn, Learning to Write" (R2L) pedagogy [11] and its application in teaching Chinese narrative writing to non-Chinese speaking (NCS) students in Hong Kong. Based on the needs of the NCS students in Chinese language learning for education and employment in Hong Kong, R2L pedagogy functions as an effective toolkit for L1 Chinese teachers to teach L2 NCS students to read and write Chinese texts successfully. Guided by the teaching and learning cycles accentuated in R2L pedagogy, sufficient scaffolding will be provided for students with teachers' explicit inculcation. With a view to understanding the effect of using R2L pedagogy on genre writing, students' pre- and post-tests representing their different levels of achievement (low, intermediate, high) will be evaluated and compared by R2L assessment criteria incorporating the four language dimensions of context, discourse, grammar, and graphic features [11]. The findings show a significant improvement of NCS students' narrative writing in the post-tests after the pedagogic intervention in comparison with their pre-tests. It is hoped that the R2L-based pedagogic practices can be served as a teaching reference for L1 language teachers on their way to L2 language education.

John McDonald   Rosalee Wolfe   Souad Baowidan   Ningshan Guo   Sarah Johnson   and Robyn Moncrief   

Fingerspelling recognition is one of the last skills acquired, due to the complex nature of fingerspelling and a lack of display technology that is sufficiently natural for recognition practice. This paper describes a corpus-based study utilizing an n-gram extension to ELAN to gain a deeper understanding of deletion and coarticulation in fingerspelling. The analysis shows that coarticulation and deletion increase with fingerspelling speed and that deletions form an increasing percentage of the modifications at shorter durations. Insights from the study informed strategies to improve current avatar-based fingerspelling generation.

Luisa Mar¨ªa Arvide Cambra   

This paper is a study of fragments contained into the religious questions (VII-X) of pest treatise, entitled in Arabic 'Tahsil gharad al-qasid fi-tafsil al-marad al-wafid' (succeeding in clarify pest disease), which was written in the 14^th century by the well-known Spanish physician Ibn Khatima (d.circa1369), being referred to the Black Death, the terrible pandemic that devastated Asia, Africa and Europe at that time. The article includes an introduction about the author and his literary and scientific significance, as well as a section containing a few fragments of the religious questions (VII-X), translated to English from the Arabic manuscript no.1785 from the Library of El Escorial and concerning to some doctrinal aspects of the Hadith, the dogmatic law of Medieval Islam and the Islamic thought in the Middle Ages.

Khoshimkhujaeva Mokhiruh   

The paper is devoted to analysis of English and Uzbek plant naming patters as a reflection of original language image of the world. Particularly, by answering the questions how and why some elements of national culture and mindset are used for naming plants, we explored the principles of perception and categorization of the world by English and Uzbek people. Based on the theory of "language image of the world" first suggested by Weisgerber and revised then by Whorf, we tried to understand what associations are put under the base of some popular patterns of naming the plants both in English and Uzbek, and how these association can explain general and specific features of the languages¡¯ image of the world. To achieve this goal we divided all the collected plant names into special association fields (Religion, animals and house belongings). Plant name analysis within these special fields expressing national specific worldview most vividly, showed us how notions related to religion, animals and house belongings (artifacts) can serve as a mean of fixing information about different properties of plants in the minds of the nations. As a result we discovered particular analogous and peculiar features of English and Uzbek worldviews.

Mohammad Reza Salehi   and Ebrahim Abbaszadeh   

This study investigated the effects of two pre-reading activities (class discussion and vocabulary definitions) and a control condition on the reading comprehension of 57 Iranian college freshmen. It also investigated the differential facilitative effect of the two pre-reading activities on the students' comprehension. Each student read an expository text under one of the three conditions and immediately afterwards answered a 9-item short answer test designed to measure comprehension of the text. A one-way ANOVA and a post-hoc comparison test were applied to the results. This revealed that the two pre-reading activities produced significantly higher comprehension scores than the control condition. Vocabulary definitions activity resulted in increased comprehension compared with the control condition, but was significantly less effective than the class discussion activity. Results of the study were interpreted in relation to the schema-theoretic view of the reading process, and to their implications for EFL reading instruction.

Seyed Hesamuudin Aliasin   and Mehdi Amanlu   

Self-efficacy plays a major role in learners' ultimate success. The present study investigated the effect of alternative assessment techniques of reading comprehension on the participants' self-efficacy in reading and their performance in reading comprehension. Matching items, gap filling items, C-tests, editing tasks and ordering techniques were used as alternative assessment techniques as replacements to traditional techniques such as multiple- choice type or essay- type items. Based on the proficiency test results, 77 intermediate junior high school students were selected from among 99 students in intact classes as the participants. The instruments included an adapted self-efficacy-in-reading questionnaire, the KET test and a reading comprehension test developed and piloted by the researchers. The results of t-test analyses indicated that the learners were significantly aware of self-efficacy while involved in reading comprehension of their English textbook texts. In other words, the participants possessed high self-efficacy in reading as measured by the questionnaire mentioned above. However, the findings revealed no significant effect for the use of alternative assessment techniques on the participants' self-efficacy in reading comprehension. Finally, the t-test results indicated a significant effect for the use of alternative assessment techniques on the participants' performance on the reading comprehension test.

Wenchao Li   

This paper tackles how adjectives distribute in Mongolian and Japanese in light of the framework 'scale structure'. It is explicated that Mongolian resultatives are of three types, i.e. adjective-post resultative; adjective-initial resultative; co-verb resultative. The acceptability of adjectival complements in inherent resultatives runs from 'Totally open-scale AP' down to 'Lower closed-scale AP, Upper-closed scale AP, Totally closed-scale AP'. Mongolian welcomes all layers of adjectives in direct perception expressions. Japanese adjectives are re-categorised into two types, i.e. open-scale adjectives (corresponding to the traditional i-adjective) and closed-scale adjectives (corresponding to the traditional na-adjective). Though both are capable of rendering an inherent result, the resultatives rendered by open-scale adjectives and closed-scale adjectives present different lexicalisation patterns. Moreover, like Mongolian, derived resultatives are also missing in Japanese. The lack of derived resultatives in Altaic languages is down to the following reason, i.e. Altaic languages are likely to lexicalise the RESULT into the MAIN VERB. In inherent resultatives, there is a connection between CAUSE EVENT and RESULT EVENT, i.e. the verb carries an implication of result. In derived resultatives, a GAP arises between ACTION and RESULT. Regarding direct perception expressions, Japanese seems to welcome both open-scale and closed-scale APs. The perceptual verb ÒŠ¤ëmiru solely delivers the perceived event and is thus deemed objective. ÒŠ¤¨¤ë mieru, on the other hand, cannot fulfil a metaphorical interpretation, and appears to be subjective.

Jochen Tiepmar   and Gerhard Heyer   

This paper provides a comprehensive overview of Canonical Text Services (CTS) and the surrounding tools that were developed on the basis of a MySQL based implementation. As such it covers a broad set of topics including a general explanation of CTS, various software tools and a wide array of text mining techniques. The goal is to compile the relatively widespread and potentially confusing amount of information into one document that focuses on the practical aspects and implications for researchers that work with text data. More technically focused aspects are discussed in the two papers that accompany this implementation ([20] and [21]) and the official CTS specifications. Additionally this paper introduces a licensing mechanism, a CTS based citation analysis workflow, a real time text alignment method and set of management tools including a central namespace resolver for CTS URNs.

Leonid Glazychev   

The article introduces the first hybrid language quality assurance (LQA) methodology for translated texts, the Quality Triangle. This methodology was developed to assess original translated materials, with no available reference translations. It combines holistic and analytical approaches and provides the most flexible solution for a wide variety of applications and subject areas. Special attention is paid to the proposed approach detailing how holistic quality factors can be taken into account given the challenge they represent: these factors need to be assessed, but are at the same time not completely objective by definition. The resulting Quality Triangle methodology provides a reliable model for incorporating semi-objective, holistic factors into quality assurance metrics and can serve as the foundation for building models applicable in real production processes and serving a multitude of purposes.

Khedidja Slimani   

The paper provides a straightforward analysis of some phonological processes attested in the Djelfa dialect, viz., epenthesis, and devocalization. The Djelfa dialect is one of the varieties of Algerian Arabic that has never been investigated before. Thus, this paper aims at delving into some of its phonological intricacies. The paper is couched within Optimality Theory framework (OT) and reveals the interaction underlying the markedness and faithfulness constraints to yield the well-formed syllable structures attested in the dialect. It mainly accounts for /i/ epenthesis to repair the undesired word-final C(C)VVCC and C(C)VCCC syllable structures, which is primarily ascribed to the interplay between *?? and *3¦Ì. Vowel hiatus, however, is resolved by glide epenthesis unless the first member of the hiatus is [-high] and accordingly, the hegemony of CONTIGUITY-IO ([-high]V) renders devocalization imperative.

Jochen Tiepmar   Thomas Eckart   Dirk Goldhahn   and Christoph Kuras   

Today's digital research infrastructures target a variety of user groups. A key task to achieve acceptance and active participation among them are both user-friendly and machine-readable interfaces to digital resources. This is especially the case for highly integrated infrastructures like the CLARIN project. The Canonical Text Service Protocol CTS is an established system in document based Digital Humanities that covers many of associated problems, like dealing with varying levels of text granularity, persistent identification, address resolution and simple interfaces for an integration in various automatic work flows. The paper shows the advantages of integrating a CTS instance into CLARIN and also demonstrates additional benefits of this CTS implementation in form of built-in text mining techniques.

F. Emilie G. Sanon-Ouattara   and R. Jacques Ouedraogo   

This paper is about the cultural adaptation of Biblical texts for the Moose, a continental people of West Africa, whose cultural realities are quite different from those of the Jewish people. To achieve this, excerpts from the book of "Song of Songs" in the King James version of the Bible and "Viim Sid-sid Zamsg Wennaam Sebre" were paralleled to bring out their nuances and deduct the translation strategies implemented by the Moore Bible translators to achieve their purposes. It comes out of the study that Bible translators were ill at ease in the translation of the Song of Songs into Moore. This is seen in their translation strategies.

Lu Jie   

American sinologists and Chinese scholars' researches on Yang Xiong's Fu show heterogeneity and variation in their perspectives, paradigms and views due to the differences in cultural moulds and poetic traditions. The primary divergences lie in their researching backgrounds and purposes, perceptions of the literary and ideological value of Yang Xiong's Fu, and their comments on Yang's imitation of his predecessors in his Fu writing. American sinologists develop fresh insights in this research and their erudition and precision cast new light on their Chinese peers. A mutual interpretation, testimony, complementation and communication between Chinese and American cultures can be gained through the study on divergences in researches on Yang Xiong's Fu carried out by Chinese and American scholars.

Yelena Mkhitaryan   and Zara Kostanian   

The paper examines the underlying origin of English modal adverbs known in linguistics also as disjuncts. It is acknowledged that disjuncts are semantic derivations of identical adverbs functioning as adverbial modifiers of manner. We assume that disjuncts (certainly, frankly, etc.) have passed through a number of reconstructive operations before they come to be used as such, i.e. parentheses expressing the speaker's attitude to the whole utterance. The basic aim of the research is to find out what constructions underlie these lexical units and what kind of reconstructions the latter undergo before they come to be used as disjuncts. The research is carried out in the framework of cognitive and transformational grammar. The results of the study allow us to state that lexical units of this type are the outcome of various kinds of reconstructions, which, in addition to ellipsis, include deletion, substitution, movement, expansion, etc. Each of these reconstructions generally recognized as compression defines a transformational step which the underlying structures take before obtaining their final form as single units. The paper also examines cases with some adjectives occurring in the initial position, which makes them identical to the respective adverbs functioning as disjuncts.

Zhou Jingqiong   

This paper deals with the trickster narrative and humorous characterization in Bread Givers (Anzia Yezierska, 1925). It starts first with characteristics typical of tricksterism, which is divided into two parts, trickster narrative and humorous characterization. Then the social and cultural circumstances are introduced of the early 20^th-century decades where Anzia Yezierska stood out as a unique Jewish writer with her masterpiece, Bread Givers. The trickster narrative of the female protagonist is explored, followed by the humorous characterization of Reb Smolinsky, her father. To conclude, tricksterism and humor serve their thematic and moral functions in the novel: they help the characters tide over poverty, sexism, and racism, and ultimately enable Sara, the narrator protagonist to rise from ghetto to a middle class career.

Joana Grant   

Thorough academic studies and pressing needs to meet professional demands in Brazil were the driving force guiding this work, which catered to map out non-native English teachers regarding to their oral skills. The research, within the context studied, identified the profile of practitioner's (oral skills) teaching primary and secondary levels, within the public and private sectors and an educational cooperative language school, Cooplem Idiomas, in the capital of Brazil. We aimed to find out whether or not the target language (English) circulated in the classrooms observed between 2014 and 2016, and analyzed how the recruitment and selection process worked to identify the teaching oral skills of the non-native English language teachers. The results of the observations pointed out that the same teacher taught in the target language in one educational sector, but taught the target language in the mother tongue (Portuguese) in another sector. It was, also, identified that teaching target language in the mother tongue can be a result of poor oral language skills, lack of awareness to teach English in English and specific school policies. Therefore, we concluded that we would like to see the Brazilian government bringing more investment into education, and assess teachers oral skills before entering into teaching, so proper and effective funding can foster better results for the nation, concerning to language teaching.

Salaheldin Elgebily   

The relationship between authority and literature has been one of the closest and oldest relations. It originated when politicians realized the significant role of poetry in supporting political systems, or opposing them. The role which poetry played in ancient times is similar to the role played by the mass media in modern times; mobilizing masses and forming their lives. On the other hand, poets also realized the great influence of monarchs and politicians and the importance of their power over humans. The poets preferred being in the security zone next to the ruler, away from the circle of danger, in which the public are situated. To them, approaching the authority meant receiving grants, acquiring influential power and gaining the attention of broad sectors of people. This research is a brief attempt to understand the relationship between poetry and politics, and the enticements that mar it. It is a study of "the poets of rebellion and rejection", those milestones in the history of Arabic poetry, who stood in the face of the authority. Some of them paid their lives for their choice, while the others kept their lives, but they were marginalized and had to live on the outskirts of society.

Michal Ptaszynski   Fumito Masui   Rafal Rzepka   and Kenji Araki   

In this paper presents our research in automatic detection of emotionally loaded, or emotive sentences. We define the problem from a linguistic point of view assuming that emotive sentences stand out both lexically and grammatically. To verify this assumption we prepare a text classification experiment. In the experiment we apply language combinatorics approach to automatically extract emotive patterns from training sentences. The applied approach allows automatic extraction of not only widely used unigrams (tokens), or n-grams, but also more sophisticated patterns with disjointed elements. The results of experiments are explained with the use of means such as standard Precision, Recall and balanced F-score. The algorithm also provides a refined list of most frequent sophisticated patterns typical for both emotive and non-emotive context. The method reached results comparable to the state of the art, while the fact that it is fully automatic makes it more efficient and language independent.

Cornelus Johannes Alexander Lourens   

Does the failure to publish all national legislation in all official languages constitute unfair (unlawful) discrimination? The question whether 'officiality' implies the obligation that all national legislation should be published in all official languages is discussed with references to the historic development of the Constitutional Language provisions in South Africa, international and foreign law are referred to as well as the three Lourens decisions. The restrictive approach by the court is criticised as they sanctioned an unfair language discriminatory practice, that English is elevated to the only true official language. The need for the intellectualisation/modernising of the indigenous languages is highlighted. In the conclusion the challenge of a constitution pretending to be the supreme law of the Country against a National Government, without any political will to enhance the indigenous languages without which speakers' have de facto accepted English as super official language is evaluated.

Rafiya Begum   and Dipti Misra Sharma   

A verb frame (VF) captures various syntactic distributions where a verb can be expected to occur in a language. The argument structure of Hindi verbs (for various senses) is captured in the verb frames (VFs). The Hindi verbs were also classified based on their argument structure. The main objective of this work is to create a linguistic resource of Hindi verb frames which would: (i)Help the annotators in the annotation of the dependency relations for various verbs; (ii)Prove to be useful in parsing and for other Natural Language Processing (NLP) applications; (iii)Be helpful for scholars interested in the linguistic study of the Hindi verbs. In this study of Hindi verbs, the verb argument relations are captured using the dependency relations from Paninian Grammatical Framework (PGF). Analysis of Hindi verbs is the focus of this study since it gives us a good understanding of syntactic and semantic behaviour of verbs which is required for dependency annotation and for parsing. [1]. The preliminary work on this study was published as "Developing Verb Frames for Hindi" [1] in Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC), 2008.

Yanhua Cao   and Jianjun Yin   

The importance of children's literature has never been over emphasized. This research aimed to explore a new perspective to study children's literature. Document study demonstrated that previous studies on children's literature were mostly from the perspectives of genre and content as well as the interaction between readers and the text. The linguistic studies on interpersonal meaning give light on the study on children's literature. The document study in this paper illustrated the possibility to apply the systemic-functional grammar to the research on children's literature. This research provides a more profound perspective to look into the linguistic resource in children's literature, which have great influence on their development.

Yelena Mkhitaryan   and Loretta Bazikyan   

Reflexive or self-pronouns make up inherent part of reflexive constructions in English. They have a dual function in the sentence: they are used as indicators of the category of reflexivity and as intensifiers used for emphasis. In both cases they express the relation between the participants of the event that refer to the same entity. But if in the first case this relation can be described as that of the subject and the object, the same cannot be said about intensifiers. The latter's role is limited by giving an extra force or importance to the element of the sentence it relates to. The aim of the present paper is to point out functional differences between these two uses of reflexive pronouns as well as to indicate specific structural and semantic features that they reveal in constructions they make part of. The study shows that constructions with reflexive pronouns functioning as indicators of reflexivity are diverse both semantically and structurally, in contrast to reflexives used for emphasis, whose primary function consists in intensification. Nevertheless, they too display some distinctive semantic and pragmatic meanings which depend on the situation and character of the accomplished action.

Jun Chen   and Lei Wang   

The paper provides a review of critical discourse analysis (CDA) studies in China from the 1990s. It starts with the origin, definition, and research scope of CDA in America and Europe. Although Chinese scholars began to show interest in CDA studies in 1995, about two decades later than their western counterparts, they have made considerable achievements in the field. On the review research level, quite a few independent studies indicate that CDA studies are attracting increasing attention from the field of linguistics, media studies, politics, and philosophy; theoretical and methodological research reveals that Chinese scholars are endeavoring to yield original research results on the basis of CDA studies abroad; practical research shows that CDA has been applied to the investigation of various discourses to disclose social reality, especially the inter-relationship between discourse, power and ideology.

Masumi Kai   

This paper examines the development of Japanese modality in children's speech and the influence of bilingual acquisition. We use data collected longitudinally from six Japanese monolingual children and three Japanese-English bilingual children. We compare their speech to analyze if there are any influences during the development of Japanese modality when acquiring two languages. Our data shows that children start using a variety of Japanese modal expressions before becoming five-years-old. Bilingual children also use a variety of modal expressions; however, the frequency rate of modal forms produced by an English dominant bilingual child is much lower than with a monolingual child. The results suggest that production frequency and the adequate usage of modal expressions may be used as an indicator in evaluating bilingual children's language development and performance.

Pingying Hu   

To examine the role of learners' innate need satisfaction in their English foreign language (EFL) learning, a case study was conducted at a university in China. Both qualitative and quantitative methods were employed in the study. Data were collected via a pre- and post-assessment research design and by recording dynamic variability in student participants' (N=353) learning performance while implementing a need-satisfying intervention scheme for one academic year. Structural equation modelling (SEM) method was used to test the hypothesized model and the structural relationship. Outcomes of this study indicated 1) that satisfaction of learners' basic needs for competence, autonomy and relatedness strengthened their autonomous motivation and facilitated controlled motivation to move gradually to autonomous one; 2) that strengthened motivation contributed to positive learning performance and significant improvement in their English proficiency; 3) and interestingly, that the causal effect coefficients of the contribution paths changed erratically with the variation of learners' motivation and English proficiency level. The present study suggested that innate need satisfaction was basically related to EFL learning outcome, but that fulfillment of different psychological needs played varied roles in academic achievement. The interesting findings signified that cultural factors and instrumental motivation had a notable impact on causal effects of innate need satisfaction on EFL learning outcome.

Andrea Kobl¨ª?kov¨¢   and David Elvis Leeming   

There has been a long discussion in academia about crucial competencies of university graduates and factors which particular universities manage to perform better in the prestigious Times Higher Education World University Rankings (THE World University Ranking) or Academic Ranking of World Universities (ARWU, also called Shanghai Ranking) than the others. The role of university language centres (LC) has not been explored in this context, till now. This paper deals with a role of LCs as homes not only to language instruction but also as workplaces through which universities may become more successful institutions in terms of the rankings. A meaningful language policy (LP) is thus closely related to the future development of LCs beyond their current perceived role of a university language centre. This paper gives examples of language policy implementation steps while building on marketing principles for addressing target audience needs and communication. Drawing on the higher education institutions (HEI) priorities in terms of university rankings, the LCs? natural role is to foster university communication culture, conditions for successful internalization and readiness to effectively communicate research results. The process of language policy implementation at the Language Centre of the University of Pardubice may provide an insight into the practice of a middle-size institution and illustrate the workplace emancipation process within an HE institution. Attention will be paid to general EU context as well as to tangible experience, implications of which may go beyond the limited space of one institution.

Mohamed Zakaria Laghmam   

This study deals with one of the most contentious phenomena in English language teaching, meaning here the use of mother tongue, Arabic, in teaching English as a foreign language. The study at hand aims at examining the degree to which Arabic is used in Moroccan High School classes of English. It reflects and explores the attitudes of high school instructors towards the usage of Arabic and their reasons behind using it. It also aims at investigating which gender uses Arabic more in classes of English. Besides, this paper tries to discuss the relationship between the use of the mother tongue and years of teaching experience. The findings of this study which were accumulated through a questionnaire and classroom observations suggest that Arabic is rarely used in the high school classrooms of English by teachers. Furthermore, the findings indicate that Arabic is used more by teachers in order to translate vague or difficult words and concepts.

Merab Chukhua   Lali Ezugbaia   and Chabuki Kiria   

Laz-Megrelian study has a long history. Still, many issues of its structure and history require clarification and in-depth research. Just to this problem is dedicated the project fundamental work "Laz-Megrelian grammar. I. Morphology "which demonstrated the correlation, similarities and differences between Laz and Megrelian. The research outcomes confirmed a substantiated and stable nature of the postulate: system of sound correspondences is the basis for the correlation between Laz and Megrelian as linguistic entities. Linguistically, the limits between the Kartvelian languages and dialects are determined by regular, systematic and logical sound correspondences which were revealed among the members of this language group. Vowels and consonants demonstrate common picture in Laz and Megrelian, the language (phonological) system is similar. Therefore, Megrelian-Laz should be deemed to be two dialects of one language. Similar qualification is supported by the morphological analysis carried out by the project participants. The work deals with the correlation between the Megrelian and Laz as well as their linguistic status.

Xu Huanrong   

This paper combines Wmatrix with BNCweb to look at the grammar of linguistic metaphors formed by concrete nouns and their derivatives across word classes in order to shed light on learning of polysemous words. The methodology is to search different word classes of such a noun in BNCweb, use the concordances to construct corpus data and upload the data to Wmatrix for semantic domain tagging, choose the self-contained corpus in Wmatrix ¡ª British English 2006 ¡ª for a reference corpus to do the frequency comparison, then study the resultant key semantic tags as clues to identify the source domains of metaphor. The underlying idea of Cognitive Metaphor Theory, the Great Chain of Being and the semantic makeup of a concept will help with the identification of a metaphor. The case study on duck shows the detailed process and feasibility of the research method. The research results reveal how different meanings of a concrete noun are related by metaphor or metonymy, which facilitates the learning of polysemous words.

Wenchao Li   and Alita   

This paper analyses the split intransitivity by introducing data from Japanese and Mongolian. The finding reveals that Japanese split intransitivity links to postposition selection, i.e. unergative motion verbs describe processes with a durative motion event and thus are likely to yield directional postpositions or a route with an endpoint. Unaccusative verbs, on the other hand, indicate a punctual motion event and therefore often occur with locative postpositions. Intransitives further split in lexicalisation, i.e. Japanese unergative verbs tend to convey the MANNER of motion while unaccusative verbs appear to favour the PATH of motion. Mongolian seems to render the path in the main verb, leaving manner to be encoded in an optional constituent, i.e. a converbal construction. The combination of converbal construction is restricted to [non-scale change morphemes + totally closed-scale change morphemes] and [non-scale change morphemes + lower closed-scale morphemes]. Essentially, unergative verbs can be non-scale change morpheme or totally open-scale morpheme, contributing to the manner of motion. Unaccusative verbs can be totally closed-scale, or upper closed-scale, or lower closed-scale morpheme, denoting the path of motion.

Korakoch Attaviriyanupap   

Translating song lyrics between two typologically and phonologically different languages requires not only language competency in both source and target languages, but also creativity and problem solving skills, especially when the translated version has to be singable along with the original melody. This paper presents results of an analysis of problems found in the process of translating Thai country songs into German and how this kind of "creative" translation can be made useful in the teaching process of German as a foreign language. Translation problems found can be divided into 7 categories: a deficit in German language skills; a deficit in Thai language skills; differences between the two language systems; the problems of conveying the entire message in the original text; differences between the two cultures; the problems of translating repetitions, and the problems of selecting German words and linguistic structures which are appropriate for singing. These findings can contribute to the teaching of translation of this music genre into German and can be applied to other song genres of other source languages. Translated song lyrics can also be used as materials in various classes of German as a foreign language.

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A peculiarity of Charles Dickens's narrative style is the use of lengthy entertaining and thought-provoking descriptions. Among them, a significant number are dedicated to meticulous accounts of accidents and illnesses which are noteworthy also because they disclose this writer's remarkable interest in and knowledge of medical matters. Dickens was a regular reader of The Lancet and a keen observer of symptoms and cures, so much so that according to an article published in the British Medical Journal in 1924 he possessed 'powers of medical observation far in advance of the clinicians of his day'. Dickens had first-hand experience of clinical cases, and there is no doubt as to his actual contribution to furthering medical knowledge. However, the full scale of his impact upon modern medicine is best appreciated when considered in the light of the medical debate of 1850s England and with regards to Dickens's place in the cultural critique of mid-Victorian England. In spite and because of his medical knowledge, Dickens was skeptical of the unquestioned authority of science and scientists, and he equally disapproved of the traditional doctor-patient relationship. This paper aims to explore these aspects from a literary perspective through a reading of a lesser-known work entitled Mr. Nightingale's Diary, a play which Dickens wrote with Mark Lemon in 1851.

Ya-Ju Yeh   

Paul Bowles's The Sheltering Sky (1949) narrates the story of Port Moresby and his wife Kit, a married couple originally from New York who travel to the North African desert accompanied by their friend Tunner. Parting from a highly American commercial civilization, the Moresbys' journey, initially an attempt to resolve their marital difficulties is later made fraught by the travelers' ignorance of dangers that surround them. The desert is a real and imaginary geographical place which takes part in the process of identity of its pursuers. The desert in this novel can be realized as either the actual desert or the inner desert of human psyche. The indeterminate, expansive environment of the desert testifies the Moresby's love and bound to each other. The desert thus gives scopes not only to the impressive solitary landscape for travellers, but also to the deepest desire hidden in human's psyche.

Annalisa Zanola   

The aim of this paper relates to the implications of introducing Public Speaking as a specific English for Purposes (ESP) domain in teaching and learning Business Communication (BC). Background literature on this topic provides a useful frame for understanding and justifying the origins of the subject and the arena in which studies on public speaking in business English then emerged. In addition to that, an overview of the business workplace skills required by corporate communities at present demonstrates that public speaking in the teaching and learning of English for Business Purposes cannot be ignored. The study underlines the strong need for a focused reflection on the impact of good oratorical skills in business communication in English. Due to the varied and complex nature of business communication, however, public speaking studies and programs should be targeted for the audience, and not standardized or copied from models which are suitable to a non-business context.

Chang Wang   

English speech writing has constituted an increasingly important part of pedagogical contents in the university education of China. As a specific genre, public speeches are diversified in accordance with speakers' specific communicative purposes, which are realized through the application of different schematic structures. It is found that native English speakers and EFL learners in China differ in their persuasive writing in the arrangement of strategic constituents of the speech macrostructure which is made up of moves and steps. Even though the three obligatory moves are predetermined for the structural completeness of the speech writing, steps are of great flexibility and creativity. Since influences from the cultural norms of Chinese are inevitable, a distinction between inductive and deductive ways of reasoning has been recognized. However, the dichotomy between the two patterns of thinking in different cultures has been proven complementary. Thus, it is proposed that developing students' sensitivity and ability in identifying communicative purposes of specific genres, inspiring them to be creative in schematic structures and breaking the prescriptive way of teaching and learning will be of great significance in future public speaking classes.

Wojciech Kozak   

In her last novel, The Finishing School, Muriel Spark focuses on the emotions of envy and jealousy, presenting them in the literary and erotic contexts. Set in an itinerant institution called College Sunrise, the story revolves around the tragicomic relationship between the school's owner, Rowland Mahler, who teaches creative writing classes but at the same time experiences writer's block while working on his own novel, and his 17-year-old student called Chris Wiley, who finds it extremely easy to produce brilliant fiction despite his very young age and disregard for any theory of writing. Rowland's envious feelings about Chris as a writer are accompanied by the jealousy that stems from the sexual interest the young student arouses in his teacher. This paper examines the envy/jealousy-based relationship between the novel's two central characters as presented both on the professional and interpersonal level (Rowland and Chris as writers and lovers) in relation to the author's exposure of the mean traits of human nature, criticism of social institutions, employment of irony, and exploration of metafictional problems.

Johanna Salomonsson   

This article focuses on phrases which include the word misunderstand (missverstehen) in German discussion forums. The article shows that the word misunderstanding not only is bound to actual misunderstandings in conversation but also is used as face work in order to stabilize communication. It is not a sign of a disturbance or interruption in interaction. Rather, the aim of the use of misunderstanding is to stabilize interaction in the forum and construe "understanding". Understanding occurs when the participants in the interaction can interpret the information in a message as relevant. This information is built on contextualisation cues, which make it possible for the receiver to connect an utterance to the context. Missing/irrelevant contextualization cues make the content of the message irrelevant and this causes a "misunderstanding", since the interlocutors do not share the same understanding of the context. The "misunderstanding" is negotiated on a meta level in an interactional sequence, referred to as a script in this article. Each contribution in the forum sequence is considered to be a slot in this script. The verb misunderstand can be used in different slots in these scripts for specific purposes. This article shows that the distribution of specific components in the message defines these purposes.

Lu Jie   

Traditional "Figure-Ground" theory focuses on the mutual relationship between figures and grounds as well as reader's voluntary adjustment of their attention to change the stale orientation of the original figures and grounds. The essay checks the implement of "Figure-Ground" theory in Jane Austin's Mansfield Park from a deconstructive perspective and finds through the blending of figures and grounds, coexistence of primary and secondary figures as well as juxtaposition of grounds, many interpretative vortexes are created in the reader's interpretation of the text. These interpretative vortexes rejuvenate and modernize traditional classic literature by advocating freedom and vitality, opposing to order and rigidity, stressing pluralism and diversity, and objecting to unification as well as binary opposition.

Lai Peng   

This paper analyzes Robert Stevenson's short story (Markheim) by probing into the symbolic meaning of objects and sounds in the background of a murder scene. Different from most short stories by other writers, who tend to express the theme by creating sophisticated characters and constructing complicated plot, this story lays unusual stress on the background and endows it with symbolic significance and textual prominence. The symbolic contrast between brightness and darkness at the place of the murder and the symbolic contrast between silence and sounds in the surroundings of the scene can be interpreted as the conflict between good and evil in Markheim's mind after he murdered the shop keeper and thus committed a sin. The symbolic depiction of the background helps to build up the psychological tension within the murderer and contributes to the manifestation of the theme: the struggle between good and evil and the conquest of good over evil. Symbolism in background depiction is shown by this paper to be an effective literary technique for revealing the theme and is thus worth drawing on even by contemporary writers.

Diana Hsien-jen Chin   

The present study investigates whether form-focused instruction enhances Chinese (L1)-English (L2)-Spanish (L3) learners' ability of interpreting the semantic entailment marked by the subjunctive and the indicative moods in Spanish predictive conditional clauses. Three groups participated in the study: (1) the native group (2) the tutored group (3) the untutored group. The tutored group received four-hour form-focused instruction on mood selection in predictive conditional clauses. The results reveal that form-focused instruction facilitates learners' interpretation of the subjunctive mood in conditional clauses. It is most effective in differentiating the irrealis conditions marked by the imperfect subjunctive. The instruction successfully directs Spanish learners' attention to mood morphology and the contextual queues that require the presence of subjunctive. In addition, the instructional effects are retainable.

Kiyomi Chujo   Yuichiro Kobayashi   Atsushi Mizumoto   and Kathryn Oghigian   

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of combining two newly developed web-based tools for the foreign language DDL classroom. One is a KWIC concordance tool, WebParaNews, and the other is a lexical profiling tool, the LagoWordProfiler. Both are freeware and are based on the same parallel corpus, ParaNews, which consists of newspaper texts in English along with their aligned translations in Japanese. Using the same syllabus to teach various types of noun phrases for ten weeks, only one tool was used with the 2013 group, and both of the two tools were used in combination with the 2014 group. In order to reconfirm the effectiveness of combining two tools, both of the two tools were also used in 2015 group. In each year the teaching effect was measured using a pre- and post-test, and students' feedback was collected using a 31-item questionnaire. Groups using both tools performed better than the single tool group on the gain between the pre- and post-test and gave more positive student feedback. This combined-resource approach using different types of information from two corpus tools may be more helpful for understanding the targeted grammar items than a more traditional single tool approach.

Juan Wu   

This paper starts from the jade image in literary narratives, A Dream of Red Mansions to the genetic study on jade mythological concepts to illustrate the aesthetic and metaphysical tension of jade, to illustrate the particular characteristics of Chinese culture, to reveal the underlying mythological concepts that dominate the ritual behaviors and literary narratives, and highlight the prototype function of mythological concepts in the construction of the jade ideology and narratives. Once the prototype of jade myth is revealed, the evolvement track of its cultural narratives and the operative relations between coding and re-coding will be better understood. Besides, the scope and subject of jade study extends from literary narratives in written form to the pre-writing prehistoric jade articles for worshiping purposes.

Gizella Frang   

Hungarian economic experts can only make a difference between global expectations and national interests. When creating their economic philosophy, they only take into consideration our native culture and the base of people's ways of thinking. The "interpretational scissors" between economic terminology and everyday language can only be reduced by bringing the economy and the common thinking in balance by using the same code system. This re-Hungarianized language used with consciousness as a common property can help us to solve the life-problems of our nation. The economic terms analyzed by the research of roots of language prove the ethical economic approach of our ancestors: economy served people living in a community, and until Hungarian reform times. It was not only as much important as everyday life required it, but based on trust and honour.

Ivana Ba?i?   and Snje?ana Veselica-Majhut   

The paper investigates linguistic patterns of direct author reference in research papers in linguistics in English and Croatian. All research papers communicate empirically proven, verifiable findings of conducted scientific research, but the rhetorical practices of various disciplinary communities vary greatly in terms of what they consider appropriate ways of "academic persuasion", that is ways of communicating their research activities and findings in a persuasive way. The presented research is based on the assumption that, apart from differences in the rhetorical conventions of various disciplinary communities, there are also differences between the conventions of particular scientific communities within the same discipline. This assumption is tested by means of text analysis of two corpora of linguistics research articles written in English and Croatian. The use of the first person singular and plural is analyzed as a direct signal of writer presence in research articles, with a view to tracing down conventionalized rhetorical practices within a single discipline in two discrete scientific communities. In addition to the analysis of the preferred patterns of direct author reference, the text analysis is aimed at uncovering and comparing discourse functions of direct author reference in the two corpora. Interviews with members of the Croatian linguistics scientific community are conducted in order to find out in what ways those authors acquired the conventions of academic writing in linguistics, how much they emphasize their own authorial role in their research papers and what communicative effects they wish to achieve with the chosen rhetorical strategies. The contribution of this research is to shed light on the differences between the rhetorical practices of academic writing in linguistics in the two studied communities.

Irina Pu?nei S?rbu   

In numerous attempts to describe the phenomenon of humour, diverse theories have been proposed: ones, revealing its superiority that evolves from aggression, derision, mockery, malice, and abuse; others, focusing on the humorous incongruity contrastive and confusing effects. As far as the superiority theory is concerned, it commenced with ancient philosophers' works like Aristotle's Poetics [1] and Plato's Republic [2] advancing the hypotheses of the malicious or derisive enjoyment caused by ridiculing and imitating mistakes or deformities, continued with Hobbes' theories of laugher regarding it as a "sudden glory" and triumphant "self-applause" over the misfortunate exposed in Leviatah [3] and developed with controversial statements of superiority being too limited and poor a concept without incongruity. Though most authors agree that it is the frustrated expectation that makes the joke or narrative amusing, we support Vandaele's [4] position concerning both theories being complementary. Since humour is a challenging translation area, rendering comic suspense and surprise without exaggerating the humourist's superiority or diminishing his preeminence turns out to be really difficult an assignment for translators. The research question this study addresses is whether translation equivalence may be achieved when transferring narrative humour linguistic, social, contextual incongruities and positive/negative superiority from source to target text. To answer this question, detailed systematic corpus analysis has been done aiming to systematize and compare target language translated versions of J. K. Jerome's Three Men in a Boat (1889) and Three Men on the Bummel (1990), to identify humour translation difficulties with concern to incongruity translation (non)equivalence and (non)aggressive superiority. Part of this comparative analysis is intended to determine the transferred comic sense quality, to consider its denotative or connotative target language equivalents which are doubtlessly contextually motivated. The present study results give priority to humorous meaning interpretation achieved by means of dynamic equivalence techniques that justify or criticize Romanian translators' competences of decoding so relative, complex and mysterious a phenomenon as humour.

Xiaozhou Zhou   

The unprecedented expansion of English as a Lingua Franca has largely shaped the state of English language education worldwide, particularly in Asian countries where a number of countries used to be British colonies. With English being spoken as a second or foreign language in almost all Asian countries and required as an essential skill for nearly every profession, English majors, who in the past possessed the competitiveness of being proficient English users, are rapidly losing their advantages. English departments are criticized for developing graduates who can merely use English as a tool but lack critical, independent and innovative thinking skills. This phenomenon, significantly evident in China, is mainly caused by the outdated design of national curriculum for English majors. The present research takes the form of a case study in a Chinese university English department. Classroom observation and in-depth interviews are employed to investigate the problems of and solutions to the current curriculum. Participants believe that excessive language training has led to the weakening of English Language and Literature as an academic discipline and that a return to the humanities-oriented approach for future development of English departments should be adopted. A language plus liberal arts curriculum model is proposed and relevant issues regarding disciplinary construction are discussed. It is hoped that research questions in this study can be further explored with a larger sample elsewhere in China and that the findings could shed some light on the development of English departments in other Asian countries.

I-Chin Nonie Chiang   

This paper intends to understand how the nine principles for deep knowledge (PDK) affect reading habits and language achievements by conducting a small-scale, experimental and statistical study. All 32 students participating in this study exhibit significant traits of PDK. The results suggest that inner-connection principle significantly correlates with academic performances. Deep-and-down and alternating principles significantly correlate with reading habits. Meanwhile, inner-connection principle effectively predicts academic performances and deep-and-low principle effectively forecasts reading habits. The mediating effect of PDK on language achievement is not statistically significant, possibly due to sample size, but nonetheless relevant and valuable to the prediction of reading habits. The development of reading habits for English-language materials takes a long time and good reading habits absolutely have profound impacts on the effectiveness of language learning. The integration of PDK characteristics into the establishment of reading habits can help build good habits in a more effective manner.

Yi-ming Marc Chou   

This paper analyzes the syntactic characteristics and the derivation of object control construction (OC) in Saisiyat. Saisiyat possesses two types of object control: in the canonical case, the controller occupies a structurally higher position than the controllee, while in the non-canonical case, the controller occupies a structurally lower position. We argue that the syntactic behaviours in Saisiyat, including the selection of voice, case-marking mechanisms, and subject-verb agreement, are closely related to hierarchical structures. The structure of the embedded clause in Saisiyat OC is a defective TP. This ¡®weak' TP cannot normally value case and govern argument. Also, it exhibits the [-Tense] feature. These two types of OC exhibit the characteristics of split-ergativity: Canonical object control strictly employs the Accusative-pattern, while non-canonical object control strictly utilizes the Ergative-pattern. We assert that the non-canonical structure employs an additional syntactic projection of Applicative Phrase in its embedded clause, which makes it syntactically different from the canonical counterpart. Based on Potsdam's[27] research on Malagasy, we propose that two types of OC are formed through argument movement and deletion in the fashion of Hornstein's[14] Movement Theory of Control and Nunes' [23] chain reduction principle. These configurations can account for why in Saisiyat the shared argument of OC occupies dual theta roles. However, unlike Potsdam's argument, we contend that the inadequacy of the base-generated approach is attributed to the theoretical nature of PRO/pro, which is incompatible with OC, rather than the effect of locality. Finally, in order to comply with the 'Last resort' and the 'Greed principle' under the Minimalist Program, we further contend that the copy movement is triggered by the checking of both formal features (e.g., phi-feature and EPP) and uninterpreted features (e.g., case and tense).

Aitor Ibarrola Armendariz   

Sherman Alexie's novel for young adults The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian (2007) won several book awards, including the Amazon.com Best Book of the Year and the National Book Award for Young People's Literature. Reviewers praised the raw feelings and the intelligent humor that Alexie shows in his portrayal of a 14-year-old Native American boy who faces many of the ordeals that the author himself experienced as an adolescent: illness, bullying, alcoholic parents, racism, etc. His protagonist, Arnold Spirit Jr., shares with other young heroes such as Huck Finn and Holden Caulfield an urgent desire to escape, in his case from the constraints forced upon him by life on the Spokane Reservation. Interestingly, despite the immense courage and honesty that the character exudes, the book has become the target of fierce criticism as it is said to depict violence, sex, and xenophobia in ways that will hurt the sensibilities of young readers.

So Jung Kim   and Josephia Tinajero   

Despite the significant role of children's literature, little attention has been paid to how picture books depicting non-traditional gender roles can be incorporated in bilingual kindergarten classrooms as a medium to open discussions about gender roles. As part of a large-scale research project on multicultural education, this study investigated literary discussions about picture books depicting non-traditional gender roles to help young bilinguals challenge gender ideologies and gender stereotypes. Implementing a qualitative case study approach, the study focused on 16 five-year-old children of Mexican-origin at a charter school located in Texas. Findings suggest that the use of gender-themed picture books in a bilingual classroom can offer young bilingual children a multitude of opportunities to challenge dominant gender ideologies and develop critical perspectives on gender roles.

Tung-Chiou Huang   and Akiyo Pahalaan   

Orthography is a set of conventions for representing language in written form; written forms are made up of graphic words, and such words, taking English for example, are composed by individual graphs or letters that represent sounds. Thus, writing systems are conventional visible marks for human communication (Gelb,1963: 12; Burnaby, 1997: 59; DeLancey, 1998). Written communication, furthermore, allows a culture to communicate in written form with its ancestors and with its progeny by crossing physical and time boundaries. All aboriginal languages spoken in Taiwan were in the past orally transmitted. As Fishman (1980: 169) writes, "Unless they are entirely withdrawn from the modern world, minority ethno-linguistic groups need to be literate in their mother tongue (as well as in some language of wider communication)." However, the language becomes vastly easier to learn and literacy is improved when the writing system is consistent. In Taiwan since 2001, English has been taught in our educational system from the fifth grade of the primary school onward. Students, therefore, know the alphabet and learn both the shapes of its 26 letters, the letter names, and the phonemic correspondence to these graphs, and it would be much easier to learn a system of phonetics for a pre-literate or semi-literate people group that uses letters found in the English alphabet, for the English experience serves as a pronunciation guide allowing students by analogy to learn spelling in their aboriginal languages. My intention in this paper through action research is to share what has been done for over thirty years to capitalize upon the fact that the students in Taiwan are already familiar with alphabetic writing because of their prior study of English. They would, therefore, be well-placed to transfer the regular sound-letter association which they have learned in English classes to the representation of the sounds of the various aboriginal languages of Taiwan. The great benefit of it is to make acknowledgement of the theme of translingualism, a process of empowerment. This empowerment of us in our daily life might produce an environment that fosters maturity and responsibility for our own circumstances. In a word, it would be easier to learn a system of phonetics that uses letters found in the English alphabet that serve as a pronunciation guide while making analogy in learning aboriginal languages.

Carmen F. Blanco Vald¨¦s   

The three memorial works written by Primo Levi about the experiences lived during his stay at Auschwitz concentration camp and his subsequent memories about it, If This is a Man, The Truce and The Drowned and the Saved, known as Auschwitz Trilogy, have several elements in common. We think that one has not been delved into deeply: the purpose of pragmatic mechanisms of the communication process. The main aim of this article is to investigate this issue in order to prove that the communication process is conceived as a basic element not only of survival (a commonly defended idea) but also - and above all - of a reconstruction of the human entity. To that extent, verbs such as comunicare (communicating) and capire (understanding) achieve a polysemic condition and can be interpreted from a double perspective. On one side, individual communication / understanding, in which verbs act in their straight sense - speaking in order to understand and being understood helps getting out of chaos -. On the other side, choral communication / understanding, in which the reader is put in an alterity perspective and in which communication transcends the pure communicative act to transform the message into a universal discourse.

Yerchak Mikalai   

The idea that any thought is a temporary formation, consisting of images, emotions and signs is postulated. Some thoughts may contain only images, others - only emotions, and still others, only words. If thoughts consist only of images or emotions (or both), such thoughts are practically unconscious (we are not aware of them). Other thoughts may consist only of signs or mostly of signs, mixed with images and/or emotions. In this case we are already well aware of the contents of such thoughts. The hypothesis was tested in a laboratory experiment in which the participants were asked to listen to several short stories and give signals every moment they had more or less vivid images or emotions. It was discovered, that images appeared to represent the main characters of a story, to reflect something important or new, some change or choice. Emotions helped generate hypotheses concerning events to happen or serve as a kind of reaction to what had already happened. Later on the participants were requested to recollect some thoughts they had expressed to someone or someone's thoughts expressed to them. Then they were asked to specify whom every idea was addressed, what had been present in the idea but was missing in the oral statement. It was concluded that any thought might be regarded as a 3-D representation which had to be transformed into a one-plane speech expression.

Daniele Borgogni   

The paper aims at analyzing from a stylistic perspective how intertextuality and translation practice are employed to build point of view in Lisa Robertson's idiosyncratic text Early Education (2009). Its constant but asystematical mistranslations of Augustine's Confessions, far from being mere linguistic plays, end up being pragmatic modal devices to present the author's stance. This highly original use of translation allows a fruitful stylistic analysis which shows how Robertson's text can challenge and question the Augustinian original and its religious and epistemological tenets, while highlighting its own cultural and ideological bearings.

Atiyeh Kamyabi Gol   and Fahimeh Aaleabbas   

Self-confidence of English language teachers has been discovered to be a significant factor in learners' achievement. This study aimed to find the relationship between English teachers' self-confidence level and second language (L2) learners' development of conversational skills. The participants of this study were 60 Higher Intermediate L2 learners at Shayan Language Institute in Torbat Heydarie, Iran. A self-confidence questionnaire was used for the present article. The teachers of Shayan institute were asked to answer this questionnaire. Then, two male teachers, one with high self-confidence and one with normal level of self-confidence were selected as the teachers of experimental and control groups, respectively. The course lasted for 12 sessions (6 weeks with two weekly sessions); in each session both teachers provided their students with the same techniques, including conversations, role plays, speaking about pictures, etc. To homogenize the students a conversation-based proficiency test (CPE speaking test) was administered. Afterwards, 30 second language learners were selected and divided into the experimental and control groups. At the end of the course a posttest was administered. The results of t test analysis indicated that participants in the self-confident group could significantly outperform those in the control group. The results of this study can provide pedagogical implications for English teachers to be self-confident and can convey this quality of L2 learners in the class.

Newton Frohlich   

The authorship of the works of Shakespeare by the glover from Stratfiord-on-Avon has been considered a myth almost from its inception. No less than Charles Dickins, Mark Twain, Henry and William James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Herman Melville, Walt Whitman, Royal Shakespeare Company actors John Gielgud, Derek Jacobi, Jeremy Irons, and Michael York, British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, five United States Supreme Court Justices, and thousands who signed a Declaration of Doubt About Will circulating the World-Wide Web have attested to their doubts. In response to the request by his publisher, author Newton Frohlich, commencing research connected with a sequel to his novel about Columbus, came across clues to the authorship of the works of Shakespeare. The man now considered by many to be the author of the works of Shakespeare is Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, the subject of Mr. Frohlich's new historical novel, The Shakespeare Mask. * Since the works of Shakespeare are considered some of the most sophisticated works of literature in the English language, it is important to know that de Vere was educated by outstanding Renaissance scholars and at Cambridge University, Oxford University and the Inns of Court. (The man from Stratford had virtually no education except possibly grammar school till he was twelve.) * Since one-third of the plays of Shakespeare are set in Italy, Edward de Vere's life in Venice, Padua, Verona, Rome, Sicily, Mantua and Volcano is described including his work with the director of the Academy of Art in Mantua where commedia dell'arte was taught. (The man from Stratford never traveled outside of England and spoke no Italian or any other foreign language.) * Since no manuscript of the works of Shakespeare has ever been found in the hand of the author, the literary works of Edward de Vere are described along with the fact that in his life-time he was praised as the "most excellent writer" in Queen Elizabeth's court and, as England's premier nobleman, he was required to write anonymously and forbidden from publishing or staging any of his writings in its own name. (The man from Stratiord never left a single piece of writing in his hand except six signatures on his Will and mortgage.) * Since the works of Shakespeare are a veritable autobiography of the life of the life of Edward de Vere -- from the poisoning of his father to his wrongful accusation of his wife's infidelity -- the life of de Vere is depicted from when he was five to the time of his tragic death, including his "favored," sexual relationship with the queen and his intimate relationship with Emilia Bassano, who is widely accepted as the "Dark Lady" of Shakespeare's Sonnets. (There is no evidence of any relationship between the Stratford man and Emilia Bassano,). In short, while the documentary evidence of de Vere's -- or the Stratford man's -- authorship of the works of Shakespeare is missing, the circumstantial evidence of de Vere's authorship is overwhelming. And as United States Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens puts it, "circumstantial evidence can be as persuasive as documentary evidence especially where, as here, there's so much of it.

Bogus?aw Gryszkiewicz   

The present study aims to bring to light the problem of the ethnic identification of Aleksander Wat, an outstanding Polish-Jewish poet. Debating common view of Jew and Pole being synonymous in Wat's ethnicity, the author attempts to trace the development and the transformation of this ethnicity. The author shows the dynamics of its evolution in a theoretical framework in the form of a fluid and dynamic model of ethnic identity. Focusing on the historical context is imperative in asserting that in the case of Wat his comprehension of the Holocaust initiated a process of rebuilding and consolidation of his Jewish identity (the poet's version of spiritual Aliyah). The final phase of the process can also be contributive to othering of his Polish "habitus".

Lindiwe Simelane   

This paper examines the use of a lexical variety used by women prisoners in Swaziland. It analyses whether women prisoners living as a community manipulate language to encode their own terminology in order to remain separate from the dominant society and use expressions that may never be understood by the outside world. The study used the qualitative research design which enabled the researcher to examine the problem from the participants' perspective. It was based at Mawelawela Correctional Institution the only women prison in Swaziland. Data was gathered through the semi-structured face-to-face focus group interview. The interview findings demonstrate that women prisoners coin terminology so that warders, police officers and people from outside the prison will not understand their conversations. They do this mainly to preserve the culture of distancing themselves from the prison authorities, and maintain a distinct linguistic identity. The results of the study suggest that language change has allowed people to manipulate language and even reveal ways in which they use it to encode and have some sort of identity. The interview revealed their attitudes about prison life. They borrow words from other languages to code their language, and also clip words by either cutting the initial part or both the initial and final part of the word. It also discovered that the prisoners use words metaphorically.

Iluromi P. Babatunde   

Language is said to be the fulcrum of human development as well as instruments for unification of people and nations. This probably explains why Nigeria declared French as the nation's second official language. However, the teaching of French language cannot be effective without the use of teaching aids. The use of teaching aids in the teaching process is imperative. Teaching aids help to overcome the French language barrier and get right to the heart of meaning. This can be only possible through the use of relevant teaching aids, conducive classroom environment, class control and good medium of communication between teachers and students. The aim of this paper is to encourage teachers not to wait for the ideal materials to be made available, but rather to investigate materials presently available, make substitutes for non-available materials and use them to their fullest extent. It therefore examines how to choose or select, prepare and effectively handle teaching aids. It concluded that Nigerian schools administration should make provisions for teaching aids so that teachers can enhance effective teaching of French in order for Nigeria to interact effectively with francophone countries locally and internationally.

Gulshat Kessikbayeva   and Ilyas Cicekli   

Morphological analysis is a very critical issue especially for natural language processing related tasks on agglutinative languages. This study gives the implementation details of a rule-based morphological analyzer of Kazakh language which is an agglutinative language. A detailed computational analysis of Kazakh language morphology such as formalization of alternation and morphotactic rules for Kazakh language is worked out in order to create the morphological analyzer. In the implementation of the morphological analyzer, alternation and morphotactic rules of Kazakh language are represented by two-level morphology rules and Foma finite state compiler is employed. This is the first detailed computational analysis of Kazakh language from morphological view. A word can have more than one morphological parse but only one of its morphological parses is valid in a given sentence. A morphological disambiguator disambiguates words by selecting one of possible parses of words. In this paper, we also present a transformation-based morphological disambiguator for Kazakh language and it is a variation of Brill tagger.

Rodolfo Delmonte   

Shakespeare's Sonnets have been studied by literary critics for centuries after their publication. However, only recently studies made on the basis of computational analyses and quantitative evaluations have started to appear and they are not many. In our exploration of the Sonnets we have used the output of SPARSAR which allows a full-fledged linguistic analysis which is structured at three macro levels, a Phonetic Relational Level where phonetic and phonological features are highlighted; a Poetic Relational Level that accounts for a poetic devices, i.e. rhyming and metrical structure; and a Syntactic-Semantic Relational Level that shows semantic and pragmatic relations in the poem. In a previous paper we discussed how colours may be used appropriately to account for the overall underlying mood and attitude expressed in the poem, whether directed to sadness or to happiness. This has been done following traditional approaches which assume that the underlying feeling of a poem is strictly related to the sounds conveyed by the words besides/beyond their meaning. In that study we used part of Shakespeare's Sonnets. We have now extended the analysis to the whole collection of 154 sonnets, gathering further evidence of the colour-sound-mood relation. We have also extended the semantic-pragmatic analysis to verify hypotheses put forward by other quantitative computationally-based analysis and compare that with our own. In this case, the aim is trying to discover what features of a poem characterize most popular sonnets.

Katarzyna Mosionek   

Thomas Hardy is considered one of the most important and inspiring writers of the turn of the century. The key to his writing is authenticity. Hardy was seized by an impulse, a sudden or recollected emotion which he always tried to preserve in writing. Various emotions ranging from sadness to joy, melancholy to compassion are the canvas for his creative power. Hardy once said that "a poet should express the emotion of all the ages and the thought of his own". So in his own thought he tells the story of grief in Tess's Lament ¨C the poem and Tess of the d'Urbervilles ¨C the novel. Therefore, in my paper I will analyse the sense of loss and the accompanying feeling of grief in these two works of Thomas Hardy.

Reena Mittal   

All of us have been brought up by learning and enjoying nursery rhymes which make our understanding of target language more accurate and fluent. Then why these poems have not been a part of curriculum when we learn second or target language. This question always makes me crazy. The present paper is about the use of poetry and its pros and cons when we talk about second language learners. Poetry, to all of us is a soothing balm to give comfort to us in every situation. So, I feel that use of poems can give language learners a new direction and will enlighten their path of success. Poems are often rich in cultural references, and they present a wide range of learning opportunities to teach English. We can use poetry for Communicative speaking activities, working on pronunciation, Writing activities and other classroom activities. Poetry promotes literacy, builds community, and fosters emotional resilience. It can cross boundaries that little else can Students find a poem a welcome, and sometimes inspirational, change from a traditional text book. Poems can be involving, motivating and memorable, and they can supplement and enrich just about any lesson. The present paper is an attempt to bring poetry into mainstream of language learning and make it more attractive.

Wang Niu   and Yuan Ying   

This paper aims at constructing a hierarchical system of ethos category, which is expected to be more operable and interpretive in both rhetorical criticism and rhetorical practice. The justification of this ethos system is the focus of the inquiry. We will mainly resolve the vagueness of Aristotle's three elements of ethos: good sense, good moral character and goodwill, via extracting from the existing studies some core subelements for each of them. To achieve this objective, the related chapters in Aristotle's Rhetoric are reexamined; interpretations of ethos by contemporary scholars are investigated; and two texts from different genres are analyzed for the testing of this reframed ethos model.

Zhi Huang   

I argue that it is the very "moderate reclusion" accurately represented by the central components of Suzhou classical gardens that Vikram Seth, himself often referred to as a "reclusive writer" , feels at home with and discourses at length on in his poems. To put it at its simplest, Seth, by portraying the people and objects of classical gardens in Suzhou, demonstrates the garden owners' as well as his own high hopes and aspirations for moderate reclusion.

Anneliese Kuhle   

In the current debate on language change, the focus on micro-changes has become more prominent [12, p. 221]. One arguable advantage of focusing on instances of change which involve only a relatively small number of structural and/or functional innovations is that the specific circumstances which instigate such change are easier to reconstruct. Moreover, these may be more closely identifiable with the actual usage events speakers and hearers engage in every day. Specifically, this paper deals with three instances of micro-change in Present-day German: the innovation from nahe to zeit+nahe, the development of postwendend as an emphatic temporal modifier, and the emergence of Austrian German voll in discourse-pragmatic function. Each instance is analyzed from a usage-based perspective though in each case different motivating factors for change come into focus. Most importantly for the argument, these factors are invariably based on the considerations of context, not innate cognitive biases. From the cognitive point of view, these findings are taken in support of the claim that linguistic innovations are based on only general cognitive abilities also characteristic of other intentional behaviors such as the handling and innovation of tools.

Harmik Vaishnav   

Communication is the lifeblood of any relationship: personal, professional or a temporary transaction among individuals. People communicate every second consciously or sub-consciously. People who want to improve their communication and make it more and more effective with experiments, practice and variety of techniques. The techniques and tools of communication, however, vary from person to person, situation to situation and medium of communication. What is good in oral communication or rhetoric may not be so effective in written communication or vice versa. Some of the tools or techniques of communication have been used effectively by many successful people, orators and writers. These tools range from use of rhetoric, intonation, storytelling, poetry or couplet recitation, reciting shlokas or aayats from religious scriptures, figures of speech like similes, metaphors, pun etc. This research article strives to answer questions like which tools are more effective? Which tools can be used as per situation? How can they make communication more effective? Can all the tools be used simultaneously? How should they be used judiciously? What is the effectiveness parameter as per the medium of communication? How does medium of communication encourage or discourage use of particular tool or technique? How can a communicator inculcate the habit of using tools and techniques for more effective communication?

Branka Barcot   

No word exists as an isolated item in our minds; rather, verbal strands connect one word with another. Associations dictionaries identify these strands or connections. The main aim of this paper is to show how to build a phraseological and paremiological corpus, which is anchored in the mental lexicon of a speaker. An extensive associative testing (of 1060 native speakers of Croatian, German and Russian) was carried out. The survey was conducted by means of the associative method (field: wild animals). The testing is intended for practical use, e.g. in teaching German and Russian as a foreign language (in phraseological didactics).

Sreeparna Sarkar   

In this paper, a speaker identification experiment is conducted where four male speakers are recorded in their normal pitch, uttering Cardinal Vowels 1 and 5, /i/ and /¨»/ respectively. Out of these four speakers, one speaker is recorded in high pitch. The listeners are asked to identify the same speakers from lists of contrastive pairs of speakers in normal pitch in one set and normal and high pitch in another. This was done in order to study the effect of changing pitch on the listeners' ability to identify same speakers accurately. We also change the vowels in certain tests to examine whether the change in vowels affects the efficiency of speaker identification more or change in pitch. The results indicate that it is indeed more difficult to identify speakers when they change their voice from normal pitch to high pitch. Change in vowel also shows drop in correct answers, but not as much as change in pitch does.

Emina Berbic Kolar   and Tanja Duric   

The paper provides an account of the research on the acquisition of English as the first foreign language and Croatian as the mother tongue among young learners in Croatia. Children become polyglot at the earliest age; they start going to school by speaking their home idiom, and then they learn standard Croatian and the foreign language. English and Croatian, belonging to different language groups, feature different linguistic features, but they still have mutual aspects that can enhance language learning. This hypothesis is examined in the research by observing English and Croatian classes and school success. There are external and internal factors that influence language acquisition, in the paper pupils' attitudes towards language learning are emphasized. The hypothesis is that pupils who are positively oriented towards language learning are more successful when acquiring the language. Research results show that acquisition of both English and Croatian at young age is more or less equally successful, while it decreases in higher grades. It has been indicated that the positive attitude toward language learning can affect successful language acquisition. Therefore it is important to constantly research ways to improve language competence and performance. The school as an important factor has a major role in it.

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi   

Every language uses elliptical structures, but how frequently nominal, verbal and clasual ellipsis occur in Hindi and English language, is the focus of this study. This paper is an effort to analyze ellipsis in two short stories: a work in Hindi language (a short story by Munshi Premchand), and a work in English language (a short story by Ernest Hemingway). The comparison is supported by the statistical analysis. The goal of this paper is to illustrate the diversity and complexity of ellipsis in two writers' works through language. The paper follows the theoretical functional grammar approach of Halliday and Hasan.

Jan Franciszek Nosowicz   and Joanna Szerszunowicz   

Anthropolinguistics ia s relatively new branch of science, whose aim is to research the evolution of human intelligence in a given period reflected in the language evolution in a corresponding time framework. Since the specialization is the main tendency in the human mentality development, this process can be observed during the constant emergence and progress of new branches of science. The specialization of knowledge involves the differentiation of vocabulary, so it results in the creation of new lexical items, which takes place in a given ethnic community at a definite time. Therefore, in a contrastive perspective, it can be expected that the development of vocabulary may differ across the communities. The anthropolinguistic research studies tend to comprise multidirectional analyses on a given element of the mentality of man in various periods. Due to linguo-cultural character and complexity of the researched phenomena, anthropolinguistics has to involve an interdisciplinary approach to the analyzed issues, which means that the analysis of a particular phenomenon requires multiaspectual studies, which comprise conducting research on it in more than one field. The aim of the paper is to present the progress and the most important achievements of anthropolinguistics with a focus on its interdisciplinary nature.

Vicent Cucarella-Ramon   

The haltingly dark past of the United States has proved to be utterly decisive in the formation of an unalloyed epistemology for African Americans. The blatant racism relegated them to the margins of the young nation ever since its foundation. Thus, trauma and sorrow have evolved into challenging concepts which overlap taking into account the transnational and transcultural memory of a considerable part of the African American population. Drawing on the concept of trauma as proposed by critics such as Cathy Caruth or Dominick LaCapra, this article analyzes Bernice L. McFadden's novel Gathering of Waters, published in 2013, as a literary account of the aftermaths that result from the traumatic experiences that African American population have historically had to put up with. Namely, I contend that the racist stereotypes of the lustful Jezebel and the myth of the ¡®buck' as a violent and virile black man have a direct impact in the tragic destiny that falls upon the main characters Tass Hilson and Emmett Till respectively. I submit that Tass' meandering into madness and the eventual assassination of Emmett Till are blunt results of the interiorization of the racist stereotypes that white America created to justify the violence impinged on African Americans. The novel totters beautifully and tragically on the precipice of the traumatic past to explain the racial nightmares of contemporary North America and nurtures readers to digest the broken soul of black Americans.

Wan-Lin Tsai   

German is taught and studied as a second foreign language after English in Taiwan. Since there are more commonalities and similarities between German and English than between German and Chinese, Taiwanese learners of German would rather refer to English than to their native language Chinese. This study analyzes the English interferences which occurred in the sentences written by the subjects, who were sophomores from Division of Continuing Education at Wenzao University of Languages and majored in German. The analyses are based on the scripts submitted by the subjects for their midterm and final exams. The results reveal that English interferences occurred in the German sentences written by the subjects. Moreover, suggestions for teaching a second foreign language are offered.

Chin-Ching Lee   

In "Order of Man, Order of Nature," Montuschi discusses the smooth transition from Christian doctrine to the new science proposed by Francis Bacon. Bacon places his conception of knowledge and new science within the Christian tradition, proposing that human race can recover its divine right over nature. New science and knowledge advocate and enhance man's domination over nature. Fernandez-Armesto finds that the culture-nature dichotomy inscribed in Christianity and in the new science displays the notion that nature exists only to serve man's needs. He thus blames Renaissance humanism for its "collective narcissism of an entire species." This study intends to demonstrate that the history-laden value of cultural domination over nature is embraced in Shakespearean plays. Renaissance humanism, characterized by the arrogant notion that man has the upper hand over nature, is embraced in Shakespeare's King Lear, in which Lear's acquired humility and Gloucester's nihilistic recognition disclose ecophobia ¨C the fear of the inconsistency and unpredictability of nature ¨C and illustrate the desire to manipulate nature to decrease its threat. The hierarchy of the culture-nature dichotomy is further consolidated in the anxiety over and contempt for nature in this tragedy.

Kamila Vrankova   

The paper attempts to discuss Nathaniel Hawthorne?s Marble Faun (1860) with respect to the Gothic tradition and its influence. It considers the way how particular Gothic elements (persecution, fear of death and evil forces, a confused identity, the secrets of the past, the setting of the Roman Catholic South) are modified and shaped into new connections and contexts: The specific role of American Puritan experience is discussed together with the Romantic emphasis on the healing power of imagination. The feeling of the sublime is related to the central theme of transgression, which is dealt with against the background of Hawthorne?s mythological tales ("The Paradise of Children") as well as P.B. Shelley?s Gothic tragedy The Cenci (1819).

Natassa Stylianou-Panayi   

When referring to Bilingualism, code switching seems to be an important issue as it is connected to: (a) the use of L1 while teaching the L2; (b) the native teacher, or the non-native teacher, in an EFL classroom environment; (c) along with the importance of the Critical Period Hypothesis concerning language acquisition. The use of L1 in the classroom largely depends on the teacher, and whether he / she is native or non-native. On the other hand, these days many classrooms tend to be multicultural and multilingual as well, so there might be confusion in some EFL classroom environments on the L1, and on how many languages code switching occurs. Acquiring a second language is largely connected to the Critical Period Hypothesis (CPH), and whether children are able to learn a language to the extent, they can learn their mother tongue, before the age of puberty. When referring to two languages and the ease of switching from one into another, the reference to the CPH becomes even more important. The present paper provides reference on recent research and the literature review on code switching and identifies the factors facilitating or inhibiting it. The paper focuses on whether code switching in an EFL classroom environment occurs because of the difficulties learners have when communicating from one language to the other; whether having a native teacher helps students or not and how code switching is influenced by several factors, such as the speakers' age.

Pan Jichun   

A careful study of the errors will reveal the common characteristics shared by the language learners. Based on the theory of Error Analysis and Corpus-based Error Analysis, and with the great help of computer technology, this paper is trying to make an empirical study on common writing errors by the Chinese non-English major students and put forward some practical approaches to the error correction, which is believed to be of great help to both the language teachers and the language learners.

Diana Bianchi   and Adele D¡¯Arcangelo   

Popular romance literature has long been neglected and underestimated in the global literary context and little research on the translation of this genre has been carried out so far. Even taking into account its "popular connotation", romantic fiction seems to occupy the lower shelf in the literary polysystem compared with other popular genres. The discrepancy between the importance of this genre in the publishing industry and the scarce attention given to it by traditional scholars means that little is known about the textual practices and processes that accompany its production and circulation, including translation. In this paper, we deal with the issue of translating romantic fiction, focusing on the specific translation of historical romances, one of its most popular subgenres. In particular, through the analysis of a specific case study, the novel Outlander by American author Diana Gabaldon, we suggest that the double filiation of historical romances, i.e. their connection to both popular and canonical traditions, may have consequences at the textual level as when such books are translated, their ambiguous generic labelling tends to be resolved, favouring either the romantic or the historical component, thus resulting in a stronger generic identity

Qian Wang   

With the assistance of multimedia annotation software ELAN, this study employs corpus-based approach to explore the inner mechanisms and characteristics of multimodal meaning construction in the co-speech metaphorical gestures in political speeches. Research findings show that in multimodal meaning making process, three patterns like "Metonymy within metaphor", "Metonymy-prominent" and "A-ING IS B-ING" can be identified. Metonymy is crucial in multimodal meaning construction for they can either be used to form a similarity relation between the source domain and target domain in the first interactive pattern, or to achieve its referential function in the second pattern, or to be used to motivate metaphorical mapping process level upon level in the third interactive pattern. lexical categories as verbs, verbal phrases and nouns are most frequently occurring words that accompany metaphorical gestures, which reveal the importance of metaphorical gestures in highlighting the language focus.

Yakun Wei   Michael Wherrity   and Yi Zhang   

The purpose of this article is to review the current research of Appraisal Theory both at home and abroad with a focus on the application of the Appraisal Theory. This analysis shows that Appraisal Theory is an effective framework for analyzing attitudes expressed and interpersonal meanings in various types of discourse such as literary works, news, legal, scientific and academic discourse. There are still some arguments about the theory itself and future studies are recommended to focus on the identification and classification of appraisal resources.

Yuan Zhang   and Suzanne Kemmer   

Corpus-based research into antonyms in English, Sweden and Japanese has gradually brought the lexical relation of antonymy into functional-cognitive linguistics in recent years. When antonymous adjectives are examined in Mandarin corpora, we find that they co-occur in both discontinuous constructions, for example, ¼È²»ÈÈÒ²²»Àäji bure ye buleng, literally not hot also not cold, 'neither hot nor cold', and lexical compounds, often called disyllabic compounds, for example, ´óСda xiao, literally big-small, 'size'. This study is a cognitive account of Mandarin disyllabic compound constructions composed of two antonymous adjective roots, such as³¤¶Ìchang duan, literally long-short, 'length', ×óÓÒzuo you, literally left-right, 'control', and ·´Õý fan zheng, literally back-face, 'anyway'. With the help of the Lancaster corpus of Mandarin Chinese (LCMC) and the corpus from the Center for Chinese Linguistics (CCL), 51 instances of antonymous adjective compounds were retrieved. When the antonymous adjectives co-occur, there are interactions between the componential semantics and the constructional semantics. While the disyllabic compound constructions may inherit the part of speech from their components, they may also have their own part of speech, functioning as nouns, adverbs and even verbs. The different categories reflect different construals of the same conceptual content. In a nutshell, by adopting a cognitive linguistics approach, we show that the different uses of these compounds are related in a systematic way.

Wang Li   

This study examines and compares the production of actually as a pragmatic marker by native and non-native learners of English based on two parallel corpora: BNC (a corpus of spoken British English) and SECCL (a spoken corpus of Chinese EFL learners discourse). The results indicate that actually occurs more frequently in the native speaker corpus than the Chinese learner corpus. The native speakers displayed more varied pragmatic function pattern by employing five pragmatic functions while the Chinese EFL speakers used only one function. Two functions constitute a statistically significant difference between the two speaker groups i.e. the topic shifter and the face-threat function. Nonnative speakers only focus on the face-threatening function.

Zahra Mohammadi Salari   and Seyed Nezam-al-din Moinzade   

Most students experience some levels of anxiety during an exam. When anxiety affects test performance, it becomes a problem. Test anxiety can interfere with the students' ability to perform adequately and prevent students from demonstrating their knowledge on examinations. Some students have the skills and knowledge to do very well in testing situations, but their excessive anxiety impairs their performance. Among many factors, anxiety can explain the differences in reading comprehension performance among learners and has a tremendous effect on foreign language reading. The study presented in this paper aimed to explore the effects of test anxiety on Iranian EFL learners' reading test performance. Furthermore, it scrutinized the role of gender on reading comprehension and test anxiety. A total of 39 EFL learners 20 male and 19 female learners at Shokouh Language Institute of Kerman Iran attended the study. Participants took one TOFEL reading comprehension tests and also completed one questionnaires of Test Anxiety Scale [38]. The results of pearson correlation and t-test indicated that the relationship between test anxiety and (RC) was negative and significant. That is, the higher the level of test anxiety these students experienced, the lower the score they obtained on (RC) test and vice versa. This result indicates that test anxiety interferes with foreign language (RC). In addition, in this study females were found to be more anxious than males in reading settings and males were found to be better in (RC).

Mohammed Albalawi   

The Arabic magnum opus Cities of Salt (1984) explores the struggle of Arabs in an unnamed Gulf emirate following the discovery of oil. The picture of Arabs living a harsh life in an oil-producing country may strike some people. Therefore, this paper attempts to establish a new perception by examining the novel and shows the far-reaching impact of oil discovery on the physical and human scene. Furthermore, this paper discusses the American-Arabs encounter displayed in Cities of Salt, which is an important one because it is a cultural confrontation rather than a political one. Because the novel is a quintet¡ªalmost 2500 pages spanning over seven decades, this paper looks at excerpts from the first volume that fit more appropriately this paper argument.

Esra' Mustafa   

Every human experience can be conceptually represented in terms of semantic frames. Frames set the major cognitive general aspects of any concept, as well as the contextual variants of such a concept. Being a universal concept, NATIONALISM is central to the human cognition. However, neither political science, nor dictionary makers consent upon its definition. This study uses semantic frame in understanding NATIONALISM as expressed in English and Egyptian national anthems. It aims at contrasting these anthems in order to render the basic constituents of the frame. Despite the different scenes represented in each anthem's frame, NATIONALISM typically actives the frame of people, place, power and principles. The eight national anthems, subject to the analysis, along with a number of political science definitions of NATIONALISM can be contained under this general conceptual frame. The frame interacts with the basics of sociology. Being developed over time and place, NATIONALISM still summons the same frame of a society of people gathered in one place sharing the same principles and governed by the same power.

Pang Xiucheng   

In the Analects of Confucius, the Bible of Chinese people, junzi and xiaoren, are two contrasting cultural keywords respectively with multiple meanings. There are a variety of target terms for each of them through the interactions between suggestiveness and articulateness, translatability and untranslatability, and between comparability and incommensurability. These target terms may establish in the target culture different conceptual paradigms about the source culture. The strategies of translating cultural keywords should draw support from the history of thoughts and concepts. The methodology needs to be discussed against the cultural background. Unifying these meanings with one term and diversifying the original word with multiple terms are two contradictory but complementary approaches. Through case analysis, this paper aims at presenting how and why the two approaches are used, what are the relationships between them and what insights we can get from the case study in terms of cultural construction and intercultural communication.

Wu Juan   and Xue Wenhui   

In the annexed article of Wolf Totem, academic proposals that "Chinese dragon totem was stemmed from prairie wolf totem and there was a period of taotie totem between dragon totem and wolf totem", gave rise to heated discussion. This paper exams the wolf-totem proposals by textual analysis and archeological evidence to indicate that there was no obvious trace of wolf-worship had been discovered in the Chinese prehistoric culture, there was no recognizable element of wolf had been found in the components of Chinese dragon, and there was no cohesive relation between taotie design and wolf totem. Thus such proposals initiated in Wolf Totem should be taken into reconsideration and conducted with more substantial evidences, otherwise they might affect the ever-growing readers with some misunderstanding or even doubts on the significance of Chinese totem and formation of Chinese culture identity.

Magonya Lilian   and Pamela Oloo   

Susan Sontag, the prolific author of AIDS and its metaphors subscribes to thesis that ailments such as HIV/AIDS, cancer, syphilis and tuberculosis are rich in conceptual metaphors by which they live by. In fact, conceptual and linguistic metaphors coined around the aforementioned ailments serve as cognitive reservoirs upon which embodied experiences with such ailments are conceptually framed. With specific reference to HIV/AIDS, the scientific works of anthropologists, epidemiologists, behaviour change communicators and political analysts affirm that the HIV/AIDS discourse is synonymous to taboo topics associated with sexuality and death. In sub-Saharan Africa, behaviour change communicators have either consciously or unconsciously creatively used pictorial sports metaphors in HIV/AIDS campaign posters. However, few studies in Cognitive Linguistics have investigated the cross-domain mappings of football metaphors in HIV/AIDS campaign posters within the African continent. Specifically on the pervasive usage of the SEX IS A FOOTBALL GAME metaphor. It is against this background that the paper examines the possible cross-domain mappings of the above-referred pictorial metaphor in 9 HIV/AIDS campaign posters used by behaviour change communicators in Kenya between 1988 and 2010.

Jefwa G. Mweri   

Content in formal or planned discourse can be "structured through the content of its proposition" - that is through the use of an organizational structure that denotes planned discourse. This paper discusses a lecture delivered in KSL by a deaf person. The lecture under analysis was divided into episodes or in some form of schema that included focal, developmental and closing episodes. This organizational structure though contributing to cohesion in the lecture is not the focus of this paper. The focus of this paper is to examine how cohesion in formal KSL discourse is structurally achieved though textual features that reflect transition boundaries between episodes and link episodes together" (Roy 1989). Cohesion in discourse refers to the links and connections that unite the elements of a discourse or text. It is the links that hold a text together to give it meaning. These connections involve lexical and grammatical devices. To be able to achieve their informational, social functions, lectures, use different cohesive devices. Those discussed in the paper to show their cohesive nature include: New topic transition markers, Signalers that introduce new items in the time series, Chronological signalers, Signalers that express relations between facts, Signalers that introduce items in the same series, Quantity signalers, Signalers that introduce example or particularization of what has just been said and Signalers that indicate a restatement of what has just been said (repetition).

Atiyeh Kamyabi Gol   and Andisheh Ghadirian   

Cognitive semantics has paid a great deal of attention to the study of metaphor. In fact, metaphor is seen as a suitable tool for recognizing the manner of thinking and linguistic behaviors. In this approach, metaphor is one of the important tools for transmitting experience and mental concepts. In other words, in cognitive linguistics, a new meaning is bestowed upon metaphor. Therefore, metaphor refers to any understanding or expressing abstract concepts in terms of the concrete domains. The present article compared the metaphors related to the word "wisdom" in the poems of the two Khorasanian rational poets, Ferdowsi and Naser Khosrou. The aim of this article was to contemplate the place and value of wisdom in the works of these two rational poets. In order to do so, the lexical item "wisdom" was identified and extracted from the poems and then categorized based on the similarity of usage found in the poems.

Stephan Paul Bortolotti   

Historical fiction is a sub-genre of fiction, not history, since it often portrays fictional accounts or dramatization of historical figures or events. Historical fiction presents readers with stories that take place during a notable period in history and usually during a significant event in that period. Historical fictionists misrepresent historical "fact" in an attempt to achieve a certain artistic effect: to capture the social and cultural conditions of the people in a given time, with particular attention paid to accurate contemporary details often ignored by historians. This paper explores reasons why writers of historical fiction employ certain tactics when they write, such as lying and manipulating. Finagling an audience ties directly into Brown and Levinson's definition of Negative Face and so this paper also explores the intersection of B/L's politeness theory and creative writing, specifically how the relationship that exists between interlocutors in oral communication mirrors the same relationship between author and reader in creative fiction.

Mohammed Albalawi   

This paper discusses the impact of immigration on individuals in the Yemeni novella, They Die Strangers. It argues that while ¨¦migr¨¦s seek spiritual or financial success, they lose identities and abandon values when attempting to become integrated into a new society. The paper rethinks the poor's plight in the novella and offers a unique portrayal through which people who are posed by social, political, and economic difficulties become deficient and disconnected.

Ahmed T. Hussein Al-Ali   

Among the most interesting female characters in Shakespeare's oeuvre is Hamlet's Gertrude. Many studies have been conducted on the critical study of the character of Hamlet's mother. Critics have split in their views of Gertrude. Many condemn her and view her as an embodiment of the frailty her son used to describe her weak and shallow gender; some even go far enough to suggest a role in her husband's murder. Other critics have accepted the apparition's word adulterate to convict her. On the other hand, other critics condole with Gertrude and see in her character marks of the dull and shallow type to think of murder. She is the malleable, weak character. Feminist critics, however, came forward to highlight traits in her character deliberately ignored by male critics and insist that Gertrude is intelligent, penetrating, and gifted with remarkable talent for concise and pithy speech. This paper focuses rather on Shakespeare's unique depiction of Gertrude's character. Such excellence in the representation of this character is strikingly brilliant by making the depiction of a character that provides ample textual proof equally to either side of the critics, condemners and condolers. In this, Gertrude stands matchless. She is the Mona Lisa who keeps smiling wherever you stand to look. No other Shakespearean character is exclusively undecided, providing critics and readers with enough substance for the two opposing factions. Thus, the unconventional character of Gertrude is another manifestation of Shakespeare's brilliance.

Yu Hua   and Guo Jian   

Doris Lessing was a British woman writer who won the Nobel Prize for literature in 2007. To Room Nineteen is the representative short novel that features her writing style. In this short novel, Doris Lessing narrates with exquisite style and literary languages an inexplicable tragic story of a female character Susan Rowling, a middle-aged full-time housewife from an affluent middle-class family. Many critics claim that Susan's suicide is a reflection of women's struggle in a patriarchal society, and Susan herself is the victim in the male-dominated society and culture. The purpose of this paper is to have a stylistic analysis of To Room Nineteen, and therefore to substantiate the above-mentioned literature critics' opinions on it. Through careful reading, studying and analyzing of this short novel's lexical features, we have drawn two conclusions: 1. a careful stylistic analysis on lexical features could help readers understand and evaluate a literary works' theme; here, in this short novel, the stylistic analysis has provided evidences to illustrate why the culprit of Susan's suicide is the patriarchal society, rather than the so-called "failure in intelligence"; 2. our stylistic analysis suggests that the influence of male-dominated society and culture is universal, broad, and deep, no matter whether the impacted subjects (especially females) are well-educated or not, intelligent or not, affluent or not. Susan in To Room Nineteen, a well-educated intelligent woman from an affluent family, could be considered as an epitome of millions of other women who, like Susan, suffer from the patriarchal control and who struggle to fight against it with their lives.

Jine Wang   

Characterized by personal emotions, Emily Dickinson's poetry has a distinctly inward tendency. The years between 1862 and 1865 are an important period in both Dickinson's life and her literary creation. This period witnesses a drastic increase in Dickinson's poetic creation, and the poet demonstrates a sense of loneliness much stronger and a pain and terror more acute. The pain has to do with the poet's inherent fiber, her frustrations in literary creation and other aspects, including the historical trauma of the American Civil War. In her experience of and reflection on pain, Dickinson gradually accepts its existence, and further transforms it into a source of literary inspiration.

Daniele Borgogni   

Emblems and devices were typical in their hybrid nature, with textual and visual elements mutually interpreting and reinforcing each other. Using symbols and metaphors, however, did not necessarily mean producing superficial, entertaining forms of art with no ¡°solidnesse¡±: rather, emblems and devices can be considered as wide cultural indexes in perennial negotiations with the materiality of their symbols. Seen from this point of view, their study can highlight various aspects that are central to the empirical study of Early Modern literature and provide a fresh look at this cultural phenomenon and at the changes in relevance paradigms in a period rife with epistemological and political tensions. Moreover, emblematic texts stressed the centrality of the interpretative moment of a participatory reader and are thus prone to fruitful stylistic analyses: in particular, the stringent theoretical tools provided by Relevance Theory's inferential model of communication can expose not only the emblematists' rhetorical strategies to direct their reader, but also their increasing tendency of constraining the latter's hermeneutic possibilities, allowing a fruitful analysis of emblematic literature and its cultural, economic and ideological bearings.

Oktavian Mantiri   

This is a literature review of the teaching principles in English language and their relationships to motivation. This article is based on personal teaching experiences with teacher trainees in the field of language teaching. Motivation is key to successful education; however, it requires the right approaches to benefit teaching and learning. This article explores the importance of meaningful learning and authentic materials in language learning. It also emphasizes the significance of the role of reward in increasing motivation. It argues that rote learning should play minimal role if at all, whereas meaningful learning be the core of the whole experience. Moreover, culture connection, self-confidence, and attitude are considered as other important factors of teaching and learning. In conclusion, this article reiterates the importance of teachers' role in language learning success whereby teachers need to set the stage for learning through creating learning environment that foster meaningful experiential learning and where students could make sense of the whole learning experiences.

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi   

The paper presents an analysis of Nelson Mandela's political speeches in relation to the linguistic devices used in his political rhetoric, such as metaphor, analogies, repetition, and three-fact lists and contrastive pairs. The main goal of this study is to address how effectively this African leader employed these devices in the linguistic persuasion. The theoretical perspective of this study has been drawn from the major researches conducted on political rhetoric, including Beard; Charteris-Black; and Gibbs. The methodology follows discourse analysis of speeches delivered by Mandela on various occasions, supported by the general principles of qualitative research. This analysis becomes important as a few researches on Madiba have often criticized him for his militant speech being formulaic and rhetorically cautious and commenting that he is a politician, and not an intellectual. This study also throws some light on how speeches are generally delivered to convince and influence your audiences.

Wang Bin   

This paper aims to explore how cultural embodiment helps translators to make decisions in their understanding and translating. This approach will be based on the premise that cultural embodiment helps the translator to associate each understanding of source text with a detailed socio-cultural environment and gives rises to the translator on, what cultural perspectives he or she will take, and how to construct meaning in translation as well. Embodied cognition is a dynamic process, yet conventional and unique representations in language anchor reading and translating in some way.

Halina Wisniewska   

Steadily increasing global connectivity, integration and interdependence affect workplace relations, which have to be adapted to the new reality. Global workers need to know how to operate in new, often challenging environment, how to understand cultural diversity and ethical issues. Communicative competence, a skill that is top-ranked by employers, is essential for establishing appropriate interpersonal and professional relationships that allow building trust and lead to successful workplace communication. It includes all the behaviors and feelings that exist between the participants of the communication process and which govern interactions. Developing communicative competence that enables global workers to improve the quality of interpersonal workplace relationships requires acquiring verbal, non-verbal and relational competence to a similar degree. Right choice of lexical items and making use of specific language features can contribute to the effectiveness of workplace communication as much as the use of non-linguistic elements or cross-cultural knowledge. Not less important are personal communication skills of business language users. Unfortunately, raising students' awareness of unique workplace discourse characteristics is not always adequately addressed by business courses instructors or teachers. The results of Laster and Russ's cross-disciplinary study [1] show differences in approaches to teaching communication skills, types and amount of time spent on particular assignments. The course content may depend to a significant degree on how communicative competence in professional discourse is understood by the programe designer. Some confusion may result from a plethora of definitions varying in length and scope, from very simple to much more complex. There is a need to unify the knowledge and experience of scholars and practitioners to better understand the complex nature of professional communication.

Pavla Stepanova   

The paper deals with the Czech lovers? names whose source domain is the animal world. Based on the theory of conceptual metaphor formulated by Lakoff and Johnson and the language image of the world, linguistics approach formulated during 1980s in Poland by so called Lublin scholars (Bartmi¨½ski, Wierzbicka and other), we present and interpretation of these names. By showing what meanings and connotations are contained in lovers? names inspired by animal world, we try to understand the deeper meaning of the using these names between partners. The language material has been drawn both from a questionnaires and online forums.

Leni Marlina   and S. S. , M. A.    

Myths, tales and other related stories for children have significant role in all cultures since they can render the multiplicity of experiences; explain the behaviour of the physical universe; and describe human nature and society. These stories are ¡®the most potent means by which perceptions, values and attitudes are transmitted from one generation to the next' (Hourigan 1997, p.1). One genre of such stories is hero story. The hero story is very popular in children's literature and young adult literature since they are considered to be ¡®unequivocally good for children morally and mentally' (Hourigan 1997, p.3). To see how the heroic archetype has changed over time, we can explore and compare the journey of traditional female heroes with a contemporary female superhero. This research paper shows how to do an alternative activity for EFL (English as Foreign Language) college students in doing literary analysis by discussing the journey of three female heroes from ancient Greek myths and a recently young adult (YA) text. The heroines of the ancient myths are Psyche in Apuleius's Cupid and Psyche (1855); and Artemis in Callimachus's Artemis (1988). The heroine of the YA literature is Katniss in Collin's The Hunger Games (2008), a contemporary young adult's dystopian literature. By patterning the quests of the heroes in question onto Campbell's monomyth, the author tries to demonstrate that these female heroes (Psyche, Artemis and Katniss) qualify as male heroes. Then, the author compares and contrasts the female heroes in respect of contemporary gender theory and the socialisation of girls.

Zahra Mohammadi Salari   Helen Behtaj   and Masoud Sharififar   

As human is a social creature, he/she needs social abilities to communicate and interact to society. A person with higher social abilities can achieve more success and happiness in social interactions. Assertiveness is one style of personality behavior which is the individual's ability to state his/her desires without violating the others' right. In educational setting, learners can take the advantages of assertiveness to achieve success in their course of study. The present study investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' assertiveness and their writing ability. The participants (n = 50) filled an 80-item self-perception questionnaire developed by [9]. A test of writing (writing section of PET) was provided for learners to measure their writing ability. Based on learners' performance on questionnaire, they were divided into two main groups of assertive and non-assertive learners. The results of correlation showed that there is a statistical significant relationship between assertiveness and writing ability. The results of ANOVA indicated that personality behavior groups were significantly different from each other regarding their performance on writing test. It was also reported that assertive learners outperformed on writing test. The results of this study may help EFL learners to develop their positive personality skills and achieve success in language learning.

Robert Boroch   

The article attempts to define properties of the smallest significant unit of a dialogue process in light of dialogic theory. In view of that, dialogue structure (dialogue retort and semantic deposit of a dialogue retort) has been investigated regarding its dynamic factor (feedback as a dynamising factor). Thus, dynamic element is understood in the article as a procedure: (1) [(A) ¡ú (B) ¡ú (feedback)] (2) [(A) ¡ú (B) ¡ú (feedback)] (3) [(A) ¡ú (reception) ¡ú (Bn) ¡ú (feedback)] Desired reaction of B (4) [(B) ¡ú (reception) ¡ú (A) ¡ú (feedback)]. Therefore, a dramatic dialogue must take the form of the following relation [(A) ? (B)], where A and B constitute the space of relation: A ? B.

Mohammad Aghaei   

Semiotics principally investigates and explores the production and function of signs and sign systems as well as the methods of their signification. It is mainly concerned with how a sign signifies and what precedes it at deeper level to result in the manifestation of its meaning. For this purpose, it offers a set of unified principles that underlie the construction, signification and communication of any sign system. The literary text as a sign system serves as an artfully constructed fictional discourse that can be signified as the same way of the signification of other sign systems. This article explains the effects of Charles Sanders Peirce's theory of signs on the development of a clear methodological principle for the narrative studies, particularly for the signification of literary discourse. So it tries to give a new direction to the signification of literary discourse on the basis of the Peirce's theory of signs and cognitive theories. It mainly provides a semiotic method for the signification of literary discourse.

Shahida   

In the last few decades, we have witnessed the inclusion of Literature in a variety of disciplines. ¡®Multidisciplinary studies' and ¡®multiculturalism' being key terms in the academia¡ªchiefly in the Social Sciences and the Humanities¡ªvarious university disciplines have started strengthening their syllabi in this direction. This paper argues that a single disciplinary approach fails to address a literary tradition and canon in Leadership Studies. It focuses on inclusion of Literature into the discipline. The first part deals with a short introduction on the inclusion of Literature in Leadership studies followed by how Shakespearean texts can be used as case studies to teach leadership issues. The paper argues that literary texts help in developing different perspectives and understanding multiple issues in leadership. A brief review on the theories of leadership is incorporated to enhance the understanding of the essence of leadership. The paper concludes with an emphasis on the inclusion of literary texts in Leadership Studies to promote better understanding of the issues in leadership.

Amitabh Vikram Dwivedi   

This paper examines creolization of the Caribbean. It looks into creolization from three points of view namely linguistic, ethnic, and biological, and discusses language, identity, and gender of the Caribbean respectively. Any attempt to define creole becomes an area of continuing concern to question the very status of language. There has been a long chain of disagreement over the definitions of creole languages and how they are different from other languages. The various etymological points of view are discussed in the first section. The second section debates the mythical or the (Andersonian) imagined Caribbean identity and it talks about ethnic creolization. The final section discusses the biological creolization.

Richard Chamberlain   

This article considers the notion of ambiguity and its treatment by critics and theorists from a perspective informed by the work of Slavoj ?i?ek, according to which ambiguity should not be conceived as an exceptional ¡®grimace' of language's deeper, more genuine ¡®Unambiguity'; rather, the pervasive fantasy of Unambiguity should be thought of as the grimace of ambiguity ¨C a convenient invention whose function is to mask the Void of a generalised indeterminacy feared by literary critics. It examines not only ambiguity's ideological functions in literature, but ideology's role in the critical conceptualisation of ambiguity. Eleanor Cook's article, ¡®Ambiguity and the Poets', is taken to exemplify the much-maligned concept's strangely persistent usefulness for an enriched understanding of poetry, but also the contradictoriness of the positions adopted by liberal interpreters. Revisiting poems by Elizabeth Bishop and Wallace Stevens discussed by Cook, and adding a reading of Tess Gallagher's ¡®Instructions to the Double', the article demonstrates 1) the social character of ambiguity in those texts, and 2) how the moral hesitation about linguistic instability evident in the language of Cook's article ¨C ambiguity's ¡®mixed reputation' ¨C highlights anxieties around sexual and economic power within critical discourse. Critics' implicit and ever-frustrated desire for ¡®Unambiguity' (an ideal of stable semantics and a correspondingly well-ordered society) is symptomatic of the contradictions of their historical moment and the bourgeois assumptions of ¡®traditional' literary criticism. It is therefore proposed, in conclusion, that unblinking attention to the unfinished, ambiguous nature of social and linguistic reality is a more effective path to political change, and indeed to the effective appreciation of poetry, than unspoken appeals to this fantasy of unachievable Unambiguity.

Nadieh Rafiee   and Azadeh Nemati   

The present study aimed at determining whether there existed any significant differences among different Translation Studies (TS) research areas in Asian as well as European journals. This study focused on the twelve main areas of TS listed by Williams and Chesterman (2002). To do so, six TS journal (three Asian and three European ones) were selected based on simple random sampling. Then, out of each journal, twenty articles were selected through simple random sampling. Having determined the corresponding TS research areas, each paper was placed in one of the twelve listed research areas. The results of the frequency analyses showed statistically significant differences among the frequencies of TS research areas in Asian and European journals (p < 0.05). While the most frequent research areas in Asian journals were 'Translator Training', 'Interpreting', and 'The Translation Process', the most frequent research areas in European journals were observed to be 'Genre Translation', 'Text Analysis and Translation', 'Translation History', and 'The Translation Process' The results also revealed that 'Multimedia Translation' and 'Terminology and Glossaries' were among the least frequent research areas, both in Asian and European journals.

Joanne Money   

During the late 1930s an evolution of Burmese writing took place, which was marked by a conscious movement to introduce new ideas in literature that would motivate the Burmese people to rise up against the British in a bid for independence. Works from western authors were adapted to reflect the growth of national feeling in Burma. The aim of this paper will be to question how far and to what extent can a work of translation become a political tool. Further, what is translation anyway? Translations are never written in a vacuum nor are they received in one, therefore can the translator position himself within the actual text produced, so that the translation will be so close to the cultural centre of the target audience that the translation might become the original? Using a form of discourse analysis this paper will examine the work of Thein Pe in particular and the role of the Nagani Book club to question how far translations can indeed become political and to what extent they were successful as a tool of nationalism. The difference between a work of translation and an adaptation is slight. In his foreword to his 1940 novel ¡®oil' Thein Pe describes himslef as a translator, and his novel as a work of adaptation. I would argue that the cultural dichotomy between two opposing rationales (East and West) was at the crux of the political/literary debate during this period. This can be examined on several different levels: Eastern vs Western perspective, or capitalist vs socialist ideology, nevertheless the question remains: can a literary translation be termed political and if so to what extent.

Ayami Oki-Siekierczak   

Japan absorbed Shakespeare into its culture when there was a sudden influx of western culture into the country after Japan emerged from its period of isolation. Even after the closure of the country came to the end, the legacy of feudal Edo (1603-1868), Japan remained in its culture. Westernisation was equal to modernisation to Japanese at that time, and Shakespeare's works were thought to be books to teach people. The Victorian Shakespeare (modified according to the taste of its readers and audience in addition to the morality of the time) imported to Japan was suitable for the social trend, and the bard himself was treated as a source of wisdom. This paper explores the context of adapting Shakespeare into Japanese culture at the early stage since 1880s, and examines how Shakespeare and his works were treated. The very early Japanese translations were heavily influenced by the way Shakespeare's works were received in Victorian England, the cultural legacy of the Edo period, and the prevalent trend in Japan of admiring the West and combining Japanese and Western cultural elements. In other words, the ¡®proper' Shakespeare by Victorian norms was presented to Japan, where he was idolized as an embodiment of Western wisdom. Definitions of the Bard in Japanese stories of heroes, books on drama history, and dictionaries of biography are analysed in this paper. Through the exploration, the paper concludes that Shakespeare was regarded as a source of wisdom in the early Shakespeare reception in Japan.

Merve Cavus   

This paper carries out a comparative analysis of Harold Pinter's The Birthday Party and Edward Albee's The Zoo Story. It achieves this by exploring how the dramatic structure, characterization, and use of language in these plays display the playwrights' tendency to employ similar themes of existentialist philosophy and man's self-quest in the face of existential anxiety and despair. Man shows a variety of inauthentic responses in order to escape the lack of meaning in life, freedom to choose and burden of responsibility. The aim of this study is to discuss these inauthentic responses given by the characters in the above mentioned plays.

Yasnur Asri   

This study aims to describe the struggle of women's characters toward gender unfair in domestic and public sector that reflected in Indonesian's novel. The root of the problem is patriarchy system that operated through various media in all field of life in society. In order to achieve the aims of the study, a descriptive qualitative approach with feminism literature critic is used. There are thirteen novels that are used as the source of the data: Azab dan Sengsara (1920), Sitti Nurbaya (1922), Kehilangan Mestika (1935), Layar Terkembang (1936), ManusiaBebas (1944), Widyawati (1948), Burung-burung Manyar (1980), (9) JalanBandungan (1989), Canting (1986), Saman (1999), Namaku Teweraut (2000), Putri (2000), andPerempuanBerkalung Sorban (2001). Based on the data analysis there two findings are found. First, the women's struggle toward gender unfair in domestic sector is happen because the tradition of pingitan (seclude of marriageable girl) and force for marriage which restraint the women's freedom especially as daughter. As a result, women are placed in domestic roles such as taking care of husband and children, do the house chores (cooking, cleaning the house, and washing the clothes). Second, the women's struggle toward gender unfair in public sector is done in form of struggle in discrimination in education and social, struggle of subordinate in economy, human rights and society service in isolated area.

Iram Sabir   and Nora Alsaeed   

The present study deals with "A brief description of consonants in Modern Standard Arabic". This study tries to give some information about the production of Arabic sounds, the classification and description of consonants in Standard Arabic, then the definition of the word consonant. In the present study we also investigate the place of articulation in Arabic consonants we describe sounds according to: bilabial, labio-dental, alveolar, palatal, velar, uvular, and glottal. Then the manner of articulation, the characteristics such as phonation, nasal, curved, and trill. The aim of this study is to investigate consonant in MSA taking into consideration that all 28 consonants of Arabic alphabets. As a language Arabic is one of the most important languages in the world, because it is the language of Quran. Each language has its own phonetic system; furthermore to the enlightenment of MSA sound system; giving a comparison between Arabic and English sound considered as similarities and differences between the two systems such as /p/ and /b/ e.g. /p/- pit /p?t/ in English but is not spoken in Arabic. Although /b/ sound is similar in both the languages e.g., / b /- bit/b?t/ in English, ???? / bal??/ "Adult" in Arabic. This study attempts to observe these words and statistical work for each other and their representation in the data included with the analysis of these results.

Tzu-Fan Ma   and Jia-Chen Chuo   

Taiwan's National Palace Museum published a picture album of Chinese paintings, Origins and Developments of the Lingnan School of Painting, when focusing on major works by Lingnan founders and masters. The Lingnan School, a realistic school of art incorporating western elements, has played an important role in modern Chinese painting development during the early twentieth century, and it has had great impact on contemporary art circles.Based on the bilingual album, this paper aims to analyze the translation strategies of art in Taiwan. The main purpose of this study is to find the problems in the translation of the titles of paintings, including the word choice, untranslatability and tanslationese language. This paper will further discuss whether the translation matches original title and the painting itself. Suggested translation that better meets the purpose is also offered. Since Chinese culture is different from that of the West, not all source language of painting titles can be translated perfectly into the target language, especially when words are used to paint a picture. Word-to-word translation and improper word choice may cause the loss of the imagination and the beauty in the translation of painting titles. As a result, different strategies should be applied in art translation.

Sujata Bamane   

Human civilization is divided into two parts- Man and Woman. Woman occupies nearly half of the civilization. Hence, woman and her travails, predicaments, turbulences have become the core part of Indian Writing in English in the hands of writers like Nayantara Sehegal, Anita Desai, Shashi Deshpande ,Jai Nimbkar and so on. Indian society, being a male-ordained society causes the self-effacing portrayal of woman in literature. Shashi Deshpande, the most widely acclaimed Indian woman writer in English majorly probes into woman¡¯s issues through her novels and short stories. The present paper is a modest attempt to analyze the image of woman in a self-denial mode as reflected in some of her short stories. The paper aims at studying the four selected short stories from her short story collection, The Intrusion and Other Stories (1993), which deals with a variety of women with their both bashful and forceful appearances. The First Lady depicts a story of a woman, who is agreed with her husband¡¯s decision to adopt a celibate lifestyle on the ground that the purpose of sex i.e. ¡®procreation¡¯ is served. Being a wife of a political leader, she desires to be in her withdrawn status, as she is fed up with wearing masks in different occasions. The Intrusion, a title story deals with a newly married woman, whose self respect is dishonored by the appalling treatment by her husband, whom she thinks as an intruder. The Wall is Safer reflects a woman, who is willing to resign into isolation and rejoices at the wall as a symbol of safety. The woman in Death of Child appears to be little different comparing to the previous three female characters. Her being uninhibited while taking a decision of abortion finally makes her diffident and weary of herself. Thus, Shashi Deshpande emphasizes the self-effacing role of female protagonists in the short stories under study in a trenchant manner.

Sangita T. Ghodake   

Nadine Gordimer¡¯s Jump and Other Stories (1991) is a collection of sixteen stories that can be best described as microcosm of the life in Africa. Being a humanist her prominent concern lies in psycho-social study of the people from all walks of life. Being a member of fractured society she cannot stop herself from describing bloodshed and horror but her spiritual self always sees a ray of hope for ¡®the emergence of a new man¡¯ in 21st century. Her depiction of characters starts with a shipwreck but most of the time they turn their lot of life by becoming salvagers. The closure of all the stories is striking, strange and shocking with the spell of pleasant or unpleasant surprise. The present paper deals prominently with two stories based on children prominently. She is a great humanist who initiates her characters to spiritual values such as the life furthering survival and positive acceptance of life in spite of adversities that marks the salvaging phase. Her stories portray the transition from the psychological state of the shipwreck to the stage of salvage through the attainment of calmness of mind. ¡®Once upon a Time¡¯ is a tragedy of a white family that loses their son due to their overprotective and possessive attitude towards life. They install most effective security system to their compound wall of their house of ¡®a continuous coil of stiff and shining metal serrated into jagged blades¡¯ (29) against the black intruders. It clearly brings out disturbed psyche of the parents due to insecure life in the country. The son, on the other hand romanticizes life of a prince and the compound wall to be a thicket of thorns from which he desires to rescue a princess. He ironically becomes the victim of the web of adult maneuvering. ¡®The Ultimate Safari¡¯ tells us the sad story of an eleven year old black refugee girl from Mozambique who moves to neighbouring country due to war for seeking a shelter. It is a touching story of a grandmother who tries her best to save her grandchildren that has been narrated in the point of view of a granddaughter. All the stories reveal human nature and psyche of the children of different age groups. The paper tries to prove that mind has tremendous power to go through the shipwreck and later on to reach the salvage.

Atiyeh Kamyabi Gol   Behzad Ghonsooly Hezareh   and Esmaeil Mahdavi Soghondikolaei   

Writing an academic article requires researchers to provide support for their works by learning how to cite the works of others. Various studies regarding the analysis of citation in M.A theses have been done, while little work has been done on comparison of citations among ELT scopus journal articles, and so the dearth of research in this area demands further investigation into citations in articles. To this aim, the researcher of the present study compares the use of citations between 60 Iranian and international ELT sopus journal articles. Citation frameworks are Petric [4] and Thompson and Tribble [3]. Each framework is further divided into sub-categories. The findings show that Iranian researchers unlike the international ones tend to use integral more than non-integral citations, according to Thomspson and Tribble¡¯s [3] framework, indicating that they emphasize the writers rather than information. Analysis of citations based on Petric¡¯s [4] framework demonstrates that the use of citation for non-attribution functions is found to be considerably lower in Iranian articles than in international articles. In conclusion, the study argues that functions of citations should receive more attention in ELT courses to raise the awareness level of researchers in order to avoid the practice of plagiarism.

K.S.N. Prasangani   

This paper presents a study of Asian university students¡¯ motivation with reference to the Malay university students by utilizing Dornyei¡¯s (2009) L2 Motivational Self System. The purpose of this work was to test the robustness of self-concept in L2 Motivational Self System and examine the consequence of the learner social goals into their self and motivation in Malaysian context. A questionnaire survey was designed and administered among 29 Malay undergraduates in Malaysia. The results of this investigation confirmed the strongest correlation between ideal L2 self and motivated learning. And a strong correlation was found between the learner self and social goals and learner social goals and motivated learning. It is pretty surprising that ought to L2 self and motivated learning has a significant correlation. The significant correlation of social goals and selves and motivated learning suggests the inevitable social attachment of the Asian learners. Asian learners as interdependent members of the society always focus their goals to meet the needs of the co-participants.

Susanna Iacona Salafia   

Decolonizing the mind: the politics of language in African Literature,1986, Kenia (NgugiWa¡¯ Thiong¡¯O); De Vulgari Eloquentia(¡°About Eloquence in the Vulgar¡±), 1303-05, Tuscany-Italy (Dante Alighieri); Half of a yellow sun, 2007, Nigeria (Chimanda Ngozie Adichie); Canale Mussolini(¡°Mussolini Canal¡±), 2010, Italy (Antonio Pennacchi). As you can see from the rough scheme above, the following will be a ¡°horizontal¡± presentation rather than a ¡°vertical¡± one. I will not talk extensively of the life and activity of the four mentioned writers, so ¡°distant¡± each other either in time or in space but I will make talk, for them, their own mentioned works (a collection of essays, a middle age treatise and two novels). I will try to assume, synthetize and summarize the political and artistic role these four authors played, only through their direct speech and words, extracted from some sample works of theirs. I will also try to understand the social and political context which they belonged to from what they have said or told in the analyzed works.

Preeti Tushar Joshi   

Technology has revolutionalized modern man¡¯s life at the global level including the field of language. The current paper tries to study the impact of modern communication tools on written English language. This is the area where technology has had the biggest impact. Email altered the structure of the letter as a communicative tool. It introduced new etiquette, new conventions, new abbreviations, acronyms such as BFN, FYI, PFA. Mobile phones with SMS have an astonishing impact on lexical and syntactical aspects of language. Language is getting shorter and shorter by the by. Two more points to be considered in this transition are the screen size of the mobile and writing as a time consuming task. Therefore, with fewer efforts if person conveys the same message ¡°why won¡¯t he go with this lingua shrunka?¡± In this type of language, punctuations make words, letters create sentences, and a mere preposition can be a proposition. Even ¡®emoticons¡¯ offering away out of wordiness and creatively solving the problem of being unable to see facial expressions or hear tones of voice in typed correspondence. They provide substitute for words and sentences. To sum up....email, SMS (texting), blogging, twittering, social networking sites tell people write the way they speak less like they used to write. Therefore, language used in modern communication tools is very popular which makes the use of the phonetic part of the language and uses only those words, which are absolutely necessary eliminating redundant words.

H¨®lmfr¨ª?ur Gar?arsd¨®ttir   

(Re)collecting Argentina¡¯s recent conflictive past has been and continues to be an effort that involves the country¡¯s entire intellectual potential and energy. Writers of fiction, no less than the historians, politicians, sociologists, anthropologists and human rights activists, actively contributed to the demand to repeal the amnesty laws of the 1980s. That repeal and the setting up of formal procedures for the investigation and adjudication of the past¡¯s wrongdoing were finally achieved in 2003.Among the many intellectuals active in this political process is the Argentinean writer Cristina Feij¨®o. In her narrative, particularly her novel Memorias del r¨ªoinm¨®vil (2001), she (re)presents Argentina¡¯s collective memory as it confronts the junta period and questions the availability of personal and social ¡®spaces¡¯ for those who survived torture, exile and persecution during the military dictatorship.

Saeideh Ahangari   and Zarrin Samadian   

Recent trends in second and foreign language pedagogy reflect a shift of focus from traditional teacher-dominated classes to more learner-centered contexts. Cooperative learning as opposed to individualistic and competitive learning, has been proclaimed as an effective and fruitful teaching method to improve the learner¡¯s linguistic, social and communicative competence. Cooperative learning requires learners to work together in groups to achieve a common goal and have the same measure of success. Maximizing the opportunities for student-student interaction with meaningful input and output in a supportive environment, cooperative learning has been confirmed as a desirable method for teaching all language elements. This study has investigated the impact of cooperative learning through Learning Together Model, proposed by Johnson and Johnson in 1987, on the writing skills of Iranian EFL learners. Thirty learners who were selected based on their English proficiency scores participated in this study. They were divided into two groups of experimental and control that took a pre-test and post-test in writing. The results of comparing their pre-test with their post-test scores indicated statistically significant differences between the control and experimental groups on the dependent variable and lent empirical support to the language teachers using cooperative learning as their teaching system. Some pedagogical implications can be offered as the results of the study. Language teachers by using cooperative learning techniques can create an enjoyable class of maximized participation and outcome. EFL learners in a cooperative learning environment, explore the language knowledge that they want to master.

Nino Ejibadze   

The Egyptian Z¨¡r ritual is a ceremony that includes different aspects of ethnographic picture; it is possible to study it from the viewpoint of the linguistic, literary, musical, psychological, health and gender issues. The purpose of the ritual is to cure certain diseases by a folk method. It has found its way into Egypt from the south via Sudan. The ritual was regarded by the Government of Egypt as involving certain danger, due to which it was even prohibited. Nevertheless, it functions to the present day, it is performed secretly and strangers¡¯ attendance at it is strictly limited. In the report the material collected as a result of fieldwork is presented, namely, some texts are offered, obtained by the author in the 2000s. The report focuses attention on the important details of the Z¨¡r practice, such as: 1. types of Z¨¡r, 2. Belief in the existence of the so-called Jinn and Sayids, which is the basis for the functioning of Z¨¡r, 3. composition of the group performing different types of Z¨¡r, 4. Z¨¡r diseases and those of medical character, 5. the language of Z¨¡r, in which the author of the report has singled out words and expressions that can be considered as the professional slang of Z¨¡r, 6. Amulets, 7. Types of musical accompaniment during the performance of the ceremony, as well as various details of the Z¨¡r ceremony.

Leni Marlina   

Humans always need to learn their past and history in order to face the present and to create the future. Learning about the past through creative works can be done through writing historical fictions. Bennett[2] affirms that the general purpose of the historical fiction is ¡®to bring history to life by fictionalizing the past and reflecting a specific time period; sometimes done by reconstructing characters, events, movements, ways and spirit of life.¡¯ In addition, historical fiction can take various forms and depictions. One of the interesting forms is the historical fiction which potrays the fictional characters in fictional situations, but in the context of a real historical period. Furthermore, the creative writing about the the past can be found in some literary genres such as gothic. The gothic work which has most influenced the author¡¯s creative process in writing historical fiction is a classic novel, Horace Walpole¡¯s The Castle of Otranto[13]. This gothic novel has many unhistorical elements such as ghosts and other supernatural things. However, Walpole¡¯s novel is helpful in understanding an example of historical fiction. Moreover, the novel inspires the author as an emerging writer in constructing the past and to present it to modern readers. This paper contains the author¡¯s personal narrative voice and it discusses how Walpole¡¯s The Castle of Otranto gives the author inspiration in the creative process of writing a short story entitled ¡°The Grandfather¡¯s Story¡± which brings individual¡¯s history by fictionalizing the past in the context of Australian history.

Xueyan Hu   

Various attempts have been made to examine the nature of communication and to explore ways of successful communication. This paper, which focuses on verbal communication, holds that verbal communication is contextual and dynamic Context plays an important role in the process of verbal communication. Context can constrain and explain verbal communication and contribute to the beauty of the speech both in form and expression.

Azmi Azam   

Dickens¡¯s concept of female personality shown in Bleak House (1852-53) is one of his most sensitive as well as complex representations of womanhood. Lady Dedlock and Esther Summerson, the two female protagonists of the novel are the best examples. Therefore, this essay will display the character of Lady Dedlock and Esther with multiple points of views to illustrate Dickens¡¯s notions regarding women. The study will evaluate the psychological turmoil of the two characters, as well as their ways of survival in the male centric society of the then England. It will also focus on Dickens¡¯s concept of home and the contribution as well as the role of women in such situations. Moreover, comparative study between characters will be shown to throw more light on the argument and Dickens¡¯s intention for such character sketches of women will be explained. Additionally, comparisons between Dickens¡¯s female characters and other characters from literature will be presented to clarify his views.

Marzieh Bagheri   and Azadeh Nemati   

Dubbing, also known as voice-overs, is the most common way of presenting the audience with the materials in a movie. As this process requires time, budget, and a team of translators, voice-overs, voice recorders, etc., producers sometimes tend to release the movies in other languages through subtitling. This is a rather easier procedure, presenting the audience with the written translated text of the material being spoken and happening in a movie. Several movies are then being processed through these common procedures in different countries. However, the question still remains as to what strategies make up the most important issues in movie translation. Explicitation vs. implicitation, domestication vs. foreignization, etc., are just some of these strategies. In this regard, many models have been presented by translation theorists (e.g., Klaudy 2008, Venuti 20004, Larson 1998, etc.). In line, the present study tended to investigate the explicitation strategies pointed out by Klaudy (2008) while dealing with the act of dubbing on the one hand, and subtitling on the other. In this regard, "Harry Potter and the Philosopher¡¯s Stone" was selected as the corpus of the study. Using Klaudy¡¯s (ibid.) model of translation explicitation, the cases were detected and further placed within the corresponding categories. Having a frequency analysis on the collected data, the results revealed statistically significant differences among the frequencies of the strategies in the dubbed and subtitled versions of the movie. The results also revealed that ¡®obligatory explicitation¡¯ was the most frequent strategy used in both versions by Iranian translators.

Thomas Peter Hawes   

This paper is based on ten consecutive 1991 issues of two Murdoch newspapers in Britain, The Sun and The Times, plus a further ten each from 2008, focusing mainly on editorial articles. All four subcorpora derive from periods in which a UK government, having enjoyed power for an extended period, was visibly weakening and the ideology expressed was, therefore, of some significance. It is claimed that The Sun, the nation¡¯s biggest-selling daily, fabricates a sense of reader ¡®community¡¯ by progressively profiling an in-group to be emulated and an out-group to be stigmatised, along with their respective ¡®values¡¯. What is interesting is that this process in the print media provides opportunities for ideological dissemination without having to overtly adopt a position, yet appears to be aimed at achieving a solidarity analogous to that created orally by ¡®the word¡¯, an official version of reality imposed by a group of indigenous Australian ¡®fringe dwellers¡¯ in Darwin, documented by Sansom (1980). One of The Sun¡¯s principal techniques employs discourse participants on a sliding scale of ambiguity to create an impression of solidarity with readers. Discourse participants (eg we, The Sun) are central to this community building as they allow narrators and/or readers to be portrayed as participants in a narrative. They also make it possible to vary writer visibility thanks to a phenomenon we could call referent slippage, or variation in the degree of inclusiveness. Although we can be used to refer unambiguously to the newspaper itself, the referent is often blurred among a) The Sun, b) a specific group of people and c) the entire nation. Disguised participants represent one step further, where they appears to refer to third parties but is, in fact, a dummy referent surreptitiously expressing The Sun¡¯s own view. In the past this technique has scarcely been employed in The Times, which tends to thematise abstract concepts and institutions rather than individuals. Nevertheless, The Times is also hesitatingly beginning to employ this device.

Harmik Vaishnav   

Communication has become very important in the modern professional and social context. It has broken the conventions of just give and take of messages. For an effective leader or manager the importance of communication becomes manifold. It is a very important tool that drives home the effectiveness of the leader or manager. How does he communicate? When does he communicate? To whom does he communicate? How does he respond to communication? These are the important elements for a leader or manager in communication and communication management. Leaders or managers or would be leaders and managers have to comprehend and perceive this communication and look ahead of the road. One can grasp the untold word, the invisible symbol or sign or reading the unwritten word and the unexpressed body language. "The Godfather" a very famous fiction work by Mario Puzo is an excellent tool of learning for the students of management, management processionals and even leaders and managers from variety of perspective, especially the HR and managerial communication. Intent reading of the novel also gives one an idea that primarily it is not a novel of crime, justice, character and a thriller; it is an in-depth study on human mind and psyche. It is a great work on the communication patterns of individuals in variety of situations and while dealing with variety of people. It goes beyond the conventional aspects of communication of speaking, listening etc. The novel has emphasized the importance of serious communication and seriousness in communication, be it with anyone. The research paper strives to throw light on the various aspects of communication in day to day professional life, the intricacies involved in serious communication and what aspects a professional can learn about communication from "The Godfather".

Grace H. Wang   and Seok-Dong Wang   

One of the most difficult areas to address in required college English classes for students and teachers alike is composition accuracy at the sentential level, that is, sentence grammar. The purpose of this study is to explore the effect of explicit grammar instruction on Korean students' perceptions of their writing and editing skills at the sentential level in a freshman reading and writing course. The study participants comprised of 15 students enrolled in a required intermediate-level freshman English reading and writing course during the winter vacation semester at a top-ranking university in Seoul. The students completed a pre-intervention writing assignment prior to receiving sentence grammar instruction, and a similar but slightly different post-intervention assignment after receiving the instruction. The intervention was provided in the form of a set of workbooks which the students read and studied for homework over a period of a week. Aside from answering students¡¯ questions on the workbooks, no other sentence grammar instruction was provided. Upon submitting the post-intervention writing assignment, the students completed an online survey anonymously to reflect on their experience of the overall task. The results of the survey point to a positive impact of the intervention on the participants¡¯ perceptions of their writing and editing abilities. This study is significant for raising the issue that explicit grammar instruction delivered in the form of workbooks could have a beneficial role in foreign language writing pedagogy.

Noura F. Abdou   

This paper investigates Gullah language in light of some of the discussions that have been revolving around it; such as the nature of Gullah, its history, the demographic setup, the linguistic situation, and the typical features. A text taken from the New Testament in Gullah Sea Island Creole is analyzed in light of a discussion of its features.

Asha Choubey   

George Orwell once described smell as the real secret of gender relations in the West: ¡®The female sex smells.¡¯ Gender connotation is writ large in almost every sociological/anthropological study of smell. Literature is also full of such references where women¡¯s sense of smell has been considered stronger than that of men¡¯s. Gaze being the masculine sense greater weightage has been given to it while smell has been deprecated as the feminine sense. Since smell has a deep cultural significance the literature of the Indian diaspora by women is replete with what may be termed ¡®olfactory analysis.¡¯ The smell of nostalgia, of memory and the past; the aroma of native food and all the native fragrances keep haunting; bringing much comfort to the aching heart. While Jhumpa Lahiri¡¯s characters are particularly nostalgic about the native food finding refuge in the gustatory, Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni dedicated the space of one novel to spices where her protagonist is the ¡®Mistress of Spices¡¯ herself; Radhika Jha¡¯s Smell reminds one of Patrick Suskind's Perfume. Replete with ¡®olfactory encounters¡¯, to borrow Janice Carlisle¡¯s expression, the novel is a buildungsroman of Leela Patel, the protagonist whose very being is apparently governed by her nose. I propose to read the olfactory representations in the novels of these women writers with a view to exploring the social, cultural and moral connotations of the olfactory/gustatory.

Kate Nguyen   Nile Stanley   and Laurel Stanley   

Storytelling has been described as the oldest technique in second language (L2) learning. Neuroscientists contend that our minds are literally wired to comprehend best the world through narrative. Researchers have claimed that the benefits of storytelling in teaching and studying second languages include increased development of language skills, improved comprehension and classroom interaction. L2 Chinese acquisition is a relatively new area of study with scant research. This survey research explored how storytelling was used in teaching Chinese as a second/foreign language (CSL/FL) in China. Participants were 15 CSL/FL instructors and 30 adult learners enrolled at the School of Chinese Language in Shaanxi Normal University, (Xi¡¯an, China). Participants took a teacher or student survey about their interests, the practice, benefits, and challenges of doing storytelling in the CSL/FL classroom. Results of the survey indicated that the participants were interested in storytelling because of the perceived benefits of language learning, comprehension, community building, and multi-cultural understanding. This article provides guidelines and recommends resources for using storytelling as an educational strategy in the adult CSL/FL classroom.

Olga Barrios   

Supaya, the protagonist of Indo-Mauritian writer Shakuntala Boolell¡¯s nouvelle ¡°La femme envelopp¨¦e¡± (The Wrapped-Up Woman, 1996), rejects the sari throughout the years of her childhood as a dress that oppresses women. However, after being forced to marry at 12 and with the passage of time, she transcends oppression and uses her sari and silence as tools and space for self-discovery. I will show how Supaya, rather than allowing the sari to imprison her, will subvert the original meaning of oppression conveyed by her garment and find the necessary freedom to construct her own identity. Paralleling Supaya¡¯s reversal of attitude towards her sari and by writing ¡°La femme envelopp¨¦e¡±, Boollel equally subverts the traditional Indian woman¡¯s image by ¡°rescuing her dignity and strength.¡± (Pereyra and Mora 189) [1] In this essay I will first examine the origins and various meanings of the sari and briefly compare and contrast this Indian attire to other veil clothing imposed on women in Muslim societies. Secondly, I will ponder whether a feminist reading of Boolell¡¯s story is possible. And, finally, I will analyze Supaya¡¯s evolution from her original rejection of the sari as a symbol of oppression to new readings of it¡ªas a device of resistance against confinement and as a symbol of creativity in the construction of her identity¡ªsomething that will help appreciate the complexity and further meanings encountered in this Indian traditional attire.

Li Larry Hong-lin   

In this study, we explore the polysemy of Jin. It is found that the polysemous network of Jin can be divided into two groups. The first sense group is composed of three senses. The sense ¡®to proceed¡¯ is the prototype of the first group. As in the LIFE IS A JOURNEY metaphor, progress in terms of time can be viewed as the distance traveled, and hence another sense arises. As for another sense, the GOOD IS FRONTWARD metaphor accounts for why Jin stands for good. The second sense group comprises five senses. Jinlai ¡®to enter a bounded space¡¯ is the central instance of the second group. The containment metaphor, which conceptualizes not only physical objects but also non-physical phenomena including an area, a stomach for digesting, eyesight, and wealth as containers, provides a basis for why Jin are tied to the other three senses of the second sense group, all of which describe an entity moving into the inner space. The findings of this study indicate that the discrepancy between language and mental process is not one of kind; in addition, meaning is built on the conceptual structure formed by the interaction with the outer world rather than objective reality.

AbdelKarim Daraghmah   Ekrema Shehab   and Amani Ashqar   

This is a corpus study which demonstrates the difficulties translators encounter when they translate into a target language without an established terminology in the field in question. The purpose of this study is twofold: First, it examines existing methods of translating specialized terminology in technology advertisements/commercials based on three main parameters, namely circulation, recurrence, and audience type. Second, the study proposes certain methods that can be effectively used to render open access specialized technological texts into Arabic for non-specialized audiences. The surveyed texts consist of translations of seventy five of the most visited online website service advertisements. This paper reveals that the text appeal is to be maintained in translation by securing the uninterrupted flow of communication between the service provider and the customer reading the translation. Conformity to the conventions of open access commercial texts and the functionality of those texts remain the main controllers in translating such types of texts.

Adagbada Olufadekemi Phd   

Literary satire is generally a social pre-occupation; an attempt to contribute to the advancement of a society in all the ramifications of the word. This is done by humorously pointing out individual or collective non-conformation to accepted norms and ethos. The task however demands subtlety, especially when operating from a multi-religious and multi-ethnic society like Nigeria. It therefore calls for a great ingenuity especially in the use of language by the satirist who must bring his ideal to the fore. In the view of Sociolinguistics, this paper submits that in Idaamu Paadi Minkailu under study, Adebayo Faleti can draw out from the reader a mirthless laughter in the confusion and agitation faced by a Catholic priest and elder statesman, who must not divulge the confession of a repentant member of his congregation, but must also ensure the obedience to, and the maintenance of the social order in his society. The satirist¡¯s bias and the probable reasons for it are highlighted in this paper.

Lata Mishra   

Indian English women fictionists' perceptions of women's liberation and autonomy are deeply entrenched in the Indian women's situated-ness within the socio-cultural and economic spaces and paradigms of the nation. This paper studies the fiction of four representative novelists from India, writing in English language. Their women protagonists firmly refuse to become prisoners of orthodoxies, fossilized traditions and stereotypically idealized identities. These fictionists cast a sharp look at the fissures in the structural dynamics of society, functioning to the disadvantage of the female of the species. Protest in women's fictional narrative articulates both the existence of the dominant power structure and the female desire to disavow and defy that structure.

Mohammad O. Al-Shorafat   

The main concern of this paper is to investigate the syntax of Wh-questions in Standard Arabic (SA). This investigation will be conducted within the latest framework envisaged by Chomsky (1998, 1999, 2001, 2005, and 2006). Chomsky¡¯s latest version has been termed a phase-based theory of syntax. As far as I know SA Wh-questions have not been analyzed within this framework. I think it is worth the trouble knowing if recent developments in the syntactic theory are applicable to a non-Indo-European language such as SA. As is well known there is scarcity of studies on SA in this modern line of research. If SA along with other languages can be handled within the phase-based theory of syntax, this will provide a cross-linguistic evidence for the universality of this theory; if not, further research needs to be conducted before reaching any definitive conclusions.

LI Jingyan   

¡®Crazy English¡¯ (CE) is one of the most popular, radical, yet controversial English training programs in China. There has been a tension between CE advocates and the academics about whether CE can really help Chinese people learn English. However, for more than a decade, CE is clearly more than just a passing phenomenon. It seems that CE has become a ¡®subculture¡¯ in China [47]. If CE offers anything new or valuable, we just cannot afford to ignore it. Thus a qualitative study was undertaken to identify the espoused concepts of CE in terms of foreign language learning and to examine its pedagogical practices. The study was framed by the examination of major views of language and schools of thought of learning theories. Results of data analysis show that CE classroom activities are underpinned by a blend of theoretical approaches and practices.

Mansour Shamsaeefard   Mohammad Reza Falahati Qadimi Fumani   and Azadeh Nemati   

The present study aimed at examining four different Persian translations of Hamlet to find out the strategies used for translation of similes based on the strategy model proposed by Pierini (2007). The Persian translations selected were those by Beh Azin, Farzad, Pasargadi and Shahin. To collect the relevant data, the whole original text of Hamlet was read thoroughly and finally 85 examples of similes were extracted from it. Later, through comparing the English similes and their Persian equivalents, the type of strategy used for each simile was determined. The results indicated that from among the six strategies proposed by Pierini, all the translators had applied the first strategy, literal translation, much more than the other ones. Meanwhile, none of the translators had used reduction of the simile, if idiomatic, to its sense in their work. Further, very low application of retention of the same vehicle plus explicitation of similarity feature(s) and replacement of the vehicle with a gloss was reported in the four translations. To answer the second research question, Chi-square test was drawn on to find out whether there was a statistically significant difference in the application of each strategy in the four translations. The results indicated that there were no statistically significant differences in the application of strategies in the four translations of Hamlet meaning that the four translators had used the strategies similarly.

ShimaKhabir   and Mohammad Reza Falahati Qadimi Fumani   

The present study aimed to investigate the qualities of Persian translated lyrics originally written in English. In this regard, one-hundred and twenty lyrics out of six music styles (pop, rap, jazz, Latin, metal and rock) were chosen through purposive sampling to be studied. To begin with, each of the lyrics was carefully compared to their corresponding Persian translations in search for any erroneous renderings made while being translated. The researcher used Hurtado¡¯s (1995) model of translation error analysis, containing three main categories including ¡®translation mistakes¡¯, ¡®translation major errors¡¯ and ¡®translation minor errors¡¯. Each of these categories was then given the negative points of 2, 1, and 0.5 to be subtracted respectively. What remained were pieces of translated lyrics graded out of 100. The next step involved the act of calculating the mean scores of each music styles. Finally, a Chi-Square test was applied to see whether the differences among the mean scores relating to each music style were of any statistically significance or not. The results of the study revealed no statistically significant differences among the qualities of the Persian translated lyrics with an insight form the six afore-mentioned music styles.

Seyedeh Sara Jafari    and Hajar aghaei   

This research studies whether cultural schema has an influence on reading comprehension and whether using a set of reading activities make up for the lack of cultural familiarity. 80 Turkish/Persian language students of pre-university participated in the cross-cultural study. Post-Hoc Scheffe and one-way ANOVA test were used in thestudy. We found that the Turkish language groups recalled the material dealing with their own cultural background better and more overall than their counterparts,i.e. the cultural-specific schema embodied in the English version of the Turkish short story "Aal" by Mohammad BahmanBeigi contributed to the Turkish language participants to have significantly better understanding of the text, while both groups were reading in their foreign language, and the use of activities facilitated for better literal understanding of the text. This way, it emphasizes a strong impact of cultural familiarity on comprehension.

Francisco J. Cantero   and Dolors Font-Rotch¨¦s   

In this paper we describe three melodic patterns of absolute interrogatives from a phonetic point of view, obtained from a corpus in Goi¨¢s (Brazil). The patterns are: a) Rising Final Inflection (30% to 52%), b) Rising-Falling Final Inflection, c) High Nucleus Final Inflection. These patterns have been established from the acoustic analysis and standardisation of 55 questions and from the verification of their validity in a perception test. We compared them with interrogative patterns obtained in different parts of Brazil and also in two Romance languages, Spanish and Catalan.

Leonardo Paganelli   

Surplus and default are both as old as Man himself. Yet the first work which studies the phenomenon of deficit in a scientific way is Xenophon¡¯s Oeconomicus (fourth century B.C.). Conversing with Critobulus, Socrates not only develops a technical nomenclature to denote defaults and losses, but also reveals what to do for transforming them into profits.

Kristina ?trkalj Despot 

The first part of the article gives a brief overview of the history of Croatian literacy up to the first written record of poetry in the Old Croatian language. The second part of the article is an overview of the four most important collections of early Croatian verse written in the Old Croatian language: the Glagolitic Parisian Songbook (1380), Pici?'s Hymnal in Latin script (1471), Klimantovi?¡¯s Glagolitic cycle of eschatological poems (1501¨C1514), and the Osor-Hvar Miscellany (1533). Pici?¡¯s Hymnal and the Osor-Hvar Miscellany¡¯s entire contents are presented, as they are both trilingual (Croatian ¨C Latin ¨C Italian) and can therefore represent the paradigm of medieval Croatian multilingualism.

Mario Francisco Benvenuto and Rossella Michienzi 

This paper represents an attempt to describe the society of ¡°norms¡± and ideals which lead to the destruction of the body. The Edible Woman by Margaret Atwood lends itself well to an exploration of this complex condition. This is particularly true if we consider the fact that Margaret Atwood writes about the female body in terms of the culture that determines it. Atwood¡¯s female bodies tell the story of the subjects¡¯ experience within a system that seeks to consume them. Susan Bordo finds Foucault¡¯s model of self-surveillance useful for the analysis of femininity is reproduced through a process of self-normalization to cultural ideals of the perfect face or the perfect body. According to Susan Bordo anorexia must be defined within a cultural context. Bordo feels that it is through eating disorders that resistance to the dominant ideological system is made known. But at the same time this resistance also destroys the contemporary female body. In conclusion we could claim that body image is strongly influenced by social norms about physical beauty. We will see how the human body is introduced in a mechanism of power with a social basis, that explores it, breaks it down and rearranges it.

Ra¨²l Alfonso and Marta Giralt 

Our world today is ruled by technology, a fact that directly influences the way students learn. In addition, as teachers, we have witnessed how this situation is projected in the field of pedagogy. New pedagogical models are required to conform to the new ways of learning of the so-called "net generation" (Tapscott, 2008)[1]. Also, the use of cyber tools for learning foreign languages not only means that teachers have a wide range of learning resources at their disposal, but it also involves the creation of new discourses and modes of communication in the teaching context. This article presents the results of an investigation that was conducted during a semester with two groups of students who worked with a digital portfolio for learning a foreign language as a part of their formal training and evaluation. Results show learner?s multimodal discourse analysis to ascertain how the discursive production of SFL students in digital portfolios integrate oral language in multimodal communication and how it enhances the learning process of oral language skills.

Flaminia Nicora 

The article focuses on the features of a subgenre rather popular with the Victorians, neglected (although evoked) by major, canonic novelists. The Mutiny novel has been identified by recent criticism as one of the pieces of the mosaic in the construction of British identity. This model of identity supports the national imperialist vocation, extolling British qualities and representing historical events in mythical, stereotypical and racist fashion, according to clear, and closely monitored, ideological values. At the same time these novels offer fertile ground to explore the uncertainties and the contradictions that complicate the pattern, warning against any simplistic attitude towards Victorian Weltanschaaung. An interesting author in this regard is George Chesney, mostly known for his The Battle of Dorking or for his works about Indian administration. Chesney is the author of a Mutiny novel, The Dilemma (1876), that sets a plot typical of the sensational novel against the background of the Rebellion, revealing the powerful anxieties inherent the colonial adventure. Other novelists who wrote on the Rebellion (G. Henty, J.F. Fanthorne among them) are equally interesting to explore the ambiguities of identity construction.

Montserrat Iglesias Xaman¨ª 

Effective communication skills are most searched for by employers within the tourism industry. Therefore, the ways of developing them are a key issue for researchers, communication instructors and Foreign Language (FL) teachers. This research took place at a School of Tourism and Hospitality Management in Barcelona (Spain). The main purpose consisted in examining the evolution of the participants' oral communicative competence in English as a Foreign Language (EFL), enrolled in a 60-hour English course using learning portfolios. Samples of the learners' speech were gathered at the beginning and at the end of the academic period, and analyzed focusing on fluency, self-confidence and creativity as indicators of progress. The utilization of communication strategies (CSs) in the learners' oral production, conceptually grounded on the guidelines provided by the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages (CEFR), was one of the main objects of the study. The results show that globally the learners' fluency, self-confidence and creativity increased, and eventually most of them used more communicative strategies than at the beginning of the term.

Ines E. Veauthier 

Leaving one¡¯s home country behind and starting a new life on a different continent may also involve being confronted with behaviors and values completely different from the ones that were deemed the only ones back home. This experience is described by the protagonist of the Asian-American author Amy Tan¡¯s story ¡°The Red Candle¡±, recalling her arrival in California from a small village in China. In her attempt to bridge the gap between the conflicting worlds of ¡°Old East and New West¡±, the protagonist uses concepts and metaphors that might be transferred and prove valuable in more than one cultural context. In the hierarchy of the culture which is described, a position of power is most of all connected to gender, age, health and wealth. The analysis will show the subtle ways in which these criteria are interconnected and in which their importance and meaning are both subject to negotiation and to possible change over time.

Noura F. Abdou 

This paper investigates control structure in Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) in light of the current discussions that are revolving around either removing the control construction from the grammar because it is just like raising construction or retaining it. The Minimal Distance Principle (MDP) is applied in MSA in light of Landau¡¯s argument to clarify whether promise-type verbs are highly marked exceptions as claimed by Hornstein or not. This investigation explains that promise-type verbs are not highly marked. The pieces of evidence provided by the MSA examples point out that control structure is not a raising structure; thus the former cannot be reduced to the latter.

Ayesha Shaikh Lynne M. Knobloch-Fedders and William B. Stiles 

Dimensions of interpersonal relationships, such as attentiveness, directiveness, and presumptuousness, have typically been assessed through impressionistic ratings or by aggregate scores derived from coding of specific (e.g., verbal) behaviors. However, the meanings of these dimensions rest on the interpersonal microrelationships that are actually observed by the raters or coders. In this qualitative study, the way these global relationship qualities were built from microrelationships at the utterance level was examined in passages from one medical interaction. Applications of microrelationships to future communications research are suggested.

Olu?t??la? ???unnu?ga? 

In this paper, an analysis of form of linguistic ambiguity in the headlines of contemporary Yoru?ba? newspapers is presented. The paper analyses 100 verbally ambiguous headlines in some newspapers. The focus of the paper is on examples of lexical and structural ambiguity that result in involuntary humour. This is usually contrived by Yoru?ba? newspaper writer for the sake of entertainment which makes the headlines funny. Therefore, this paper examined some words and expression which are possibly ambiguous in the headlines of contemporary Yoru?ba? newspapers. The headlines collected in our corpus and analysed were selected precisely because the sources of ambiguity that produced the humorous effect were of a linguistic nature. This is in an attempt to propose a systematic analysis of humorous headlines that have rarely been considered in the Yoru?ba? literature.

Mitra Eftekhar and Peyman Nouraey 

Within the realm of Translation Studies, comparative studies hold a great deal of importance. Likewise, Translation Quality Assessment is treated as a fast-growing sub-field in Translation Studies, focusing on the inter-relationships between the source and the target texts. The seinter-relationships involve the lexis, grammar, syntax, and semantics of both texts. Unlike sentences in isolation, texts are context-bound and thus a distinction between text and sentence is made. The present work was motivated by the researchers¡¯ wish to reveal the nature of the English translations of Iranian product labels by investigating the errors occurred on these labels. To pursue this purpose, a corpus of three-hundred translated home appliances labels designed for Iranian products manufactured between 2010 and 2012 were collected through purposive sampling and then subjected to error analysis. Using Keshavarz¡¯ (1993) model of error analysis, each and every sample was placed under its possible category of errors. The results of the analyses indicated that over half of the total numbers of the labels under study were erroneous ones, either ¡®grammatically¡¯, ¡®semantically¡¯ or ¡®pragmatically¡¯. The results also pointed out that grammatical errors held the highest frequency among the other types of errors presented by Keshavarz (1993), holding fifty percent of the total errors occurred.

Benard Odoyo Okal Florence Indede and Ernest Sangai Mohochi 

The paper gives an exposition of some adapted English lexemes into Dholuo. The work relied on a descriptive design. Total purposive sampling technique was incorporated in collecting secondary data to saturation level. All the adapted nominal lexemes from the English Dholuo Dictionary (EDD) were collected, qualitatively analyzed, edited and presented thematically by showing the adapted lexemes in various areas. The results indicate that adapted lexemes in this lexicographical work are manifested in the following areas: religion, people, subjects, places, measurements, clothing, vegetables, foodstuff, equipment, vehicles and months. We have gathered that as we adapt some lexemes from English into Dholuo, then phonemes such as /? (sh), z/ automatically change to /s/, /v/ changes to /f/ and /q/ changes to /k/. We have concluded that English consonant phonemes such as /?(sh), z, v, q/ are not manifested in Dholuo. Therefore, translators have to adapt them by using both the transference and naturalization translation procedures in order to achieve the desirable translated text.

Leonardo Paganelli 

In 1922 Ezra Pound went to Rimini, Italy, in order to study the story of Malatestas. He carried out precise research about Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta and his attempt to create an independent Seignory all over Central Italy in the XV century A.D., forerunning Cesare Borgia's projects. At last, Pound wrote his four Malatesta Cantos (VIII-XI). In 1944, when Rimini was bombed, he expressed his deepest sympathy for that martyr town. Some of these data have been analysed by a recent critical edition of Pound's Draft of XXX Cantos, published by Prof. Bacigalupo.

V.A. Yatsko and T.S.  Yatsko 

The paper focuses on the structure of predicative possessive constructions described in terms of semantic features distinguished within scope of predication analysis, viz. causative, agentive, inchoative, egressive, continuative, and stative features. Features that are in complementary distribution yield contaminated forms of possessive constructions: inchoative-causative, inchoative-agentive, egressive-causative, egressive-agentive, continuative-causative, continuative-agentive. Causative possessive constructions are taken to be basic since their structure corresponds to the structure of the prototypical situation while the other ones are derived from them by omission of appropriate semantic features. The structure of causative possessive sentences is described in terms of componential analysis.

´¡²Ô»å°ù¨¦&²Ô²ú²õ±è;°­²¹²ú´Ç°ù¨¦&²Ô²ú²õ±è;

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie uses many symbols in her novel, Purple Hibiscus. An explanation of these symbols will lead readers to a deeper understanding of the message of the author. This paper focuses mainly on the symbols of palm, figurines and hibiscus which are used in Purple Hibiscus. It argues that these symbols represent some characters in the novel or at least are used in connection to them through the use of the literary form of pathetic fallacy.

Lata Mishra 

This paper considers 'culture' as a framework in which people live their lives and communicate shared meanings with each other. Culture has been a dynamic system through which a society constructs, represents, enacts and understands itself. The research documents the way human consciousness cognizes and registers the world around her/him. "The Shiva Trilogy" authored by Amish Tripathi combines the narrative excess with philosophical debate. The fiction depicts that the culture evolves as men sacrifice their duty (swadharma) for the greater good, Universal Dharma. The Oath of Vayuputras, enlivens consciousness and promotes the experience of a new sense of Self. It contends that the engagement of self in action, purifies man. Knowledge liberates an individual. While the study discusses the issues of liberation, emancipation, equal rights and womanhood, it gives significance to humans and their relations, as self does not exist in seclusion. While enriching the differences, this fiction strengthens the cultural integrity of India. Through recreation, "The Shiva Trilogy" becomes the living inspirational scripture capable of providing spiritual direction to the present world.

Okey Goode 

Defoe, as religious dissenter and writer of fictions, sought to ally moral pronouncement with mimetic representation of material conditions.His character-narrators typically detail the wicked behavior they are driven to for survival as a prelude to repentance. In his final novel, Roxana, however, Defoe confronts his narrator's exploitation of the gap between the referential language of experience and the "internally persuasive" [Bakhtin] conventional discourse of repentance. Once Roxana dethrones "the sovereignty of an original Text" [Foucault], she manipulates the language of repentance to authorize her self-serving sexual license. Defoe cannot resolve the narrative by her repentance. The implications of the split between speech and act may lead Defoe to recognize the similar disjunction between the allure of his character's adventures and his goal of moral instruction. Unable to ally the truth of human experience with the truth of dissenting repentance while ensuring that "the Fable is always made for the Moral" [Defoe], he abandons fiction.

Azadeh Nemati 

According to Oxford (1990), strategies are steps taken by students to enhance their own learning. This research attempted to investigate the impact of teaching vocabulary learning strategies on short-term and long-term retention of vocabulary items. The sample participants included 303 females randomly selected from one all-female governmental Pre-university school (PUC) in Iran. They were then divided into control and experimental groups and different proficiency levels. Researchers have generally equated the effect of instruction with its duration rather than its quality or intensity. The results obtained, through repeated measure ANOVA, revealed that strategy training could enhance long-term retention of vocabulary items significantly ¨C the experimental group students outperformed the control group within the same period of instruction. Comparing different experimental proficiency groups, high proficiency level participants excelled their low and intermediate counterparts. Finally, from among different strategies "grouping" was proved to be an effective strategy for all proficiency level participants.

Asha Choubey 

Cultural alienation and consequent loss of identity forms a central issue in the diasporic discourse. The pain of displacement continues to pinch not only the immigrants but also their children who are rendered incapable of belonging to the country of their birth. The tragedy of alienation is felt as much by the immigrants as the next generation because the sense of estrangement is more intense in proportion to the sense of affinity with roots. Immigrants find themselves unable to adapt to their adopted country failing to adjust to the foster culture; however, their predicament is not as pathetic as that of their children. They are half-lost as there is at least one place where they wholly and absolutely belong whereas their children do not belong anywhere becoming truly and pitiably nowhere persons. There are two fictional characters that come to mind Willie Somerset Chandran and Nikhil Gogol Ganguli that occur in V. S. Naipaul's Half a Life (2001) and Jhumpa Lahiri's The Namesake (2003) respectively. I shall attempt to trace the dilemma of Lahiri's Gogol who is born to Indian immigrant parents but is a naturalized citizen of America by dint of his birth. My paper attempts to read how an Indian-American, Gogol lives like a pendulum till he finally attains maturity to move towards self-realization. Gogol's story is the story of a nowhere man searching for his rightful place in his home that remains for long a place of exile.