Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.109
SunYoung Park
A number of second and third language acquisition studies have been conducted on the acquisition of articles in order to examine the learnabilities of the feature from various L1 backgrounds, such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Turkish among many others. Numerous studies have revealed ongoing difficulties of acquiring (in)definite articles by L2 and L3 language learners even at the most advanced stages of acquisition. Considering the issue of learnabilities of articles, it would be interesting and meaningful to investigate how (in)definiteness is realized in natural languages and figure out whether using articles to denote (in)definiteness is a predominant phenomenon or not. Therefore, the current paper examined the typologlogical database—World Atlas of Linguistic Structures and presented descriptions of (in)definitenesses in natural languages. It was shown that more than half of existing natural languages do not have (in)definite articles and it is realized in other linguistic means. The current study also reviews article uses in artificial languages, such as Esperanto and Unish, concluding that in order for the language learners to be able to acquire a linguistic feature most efficiently, it should be as typologically neutral as possible.
{"title":"Typological Analysis of Articles in World Languages","authors":"SunYoung Park","doi":"10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.109","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.109","url":null,"abstract":"A number of second and third language acquisition studies have been conducted on the acquisition of articles in order to examine the learnabilities of the feature from various L1 backgrounds, such as Chinese, Korean, Japanese, Spanish, Russian, Turkish among many others. Numerous studies have revealed ongoing difficulties of acquiring (in)definite articles by L2 and L3 language learners even at the most advanced stages of acquisition. Considering the issue of learnabilities of articles, it would be interesting and meaningful to investigate how (in)definiteness is realized in natural languages and figure out whether using articles to denote (in)definiteness is a predominant phenomenon or not. Therefore, the current paper examined the typologlogical database—World Atlas of Linguistic Structures and presented descriptions of (in)definitenesses in natural languages. It was shown that more than half of existing natural languages do not have (in)definite articles and it is realized in other linguistic means. The current study also reviews article uses in artificial languages, such as Esperanto and Unish, concluding that in order for the language learners to be able to acquire a linguistic feature most efficiently, it should be as typologically neutral as possible.","PeriodicalId":231529,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Universal Language","volume":"13 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"121164083","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.167
A. Ghorbanpour
Impossible Languages, written by the Italian linguist and neuroscientist Andrea Moro (2016), takes a new look at the biological foundations of language and explores what makes human language distinct from any other communication system—the “fingerprint” of human language, as the author puts it. The book is divided into 11 chapters and, together with the list of references and an index at the end of the book, contains a total of 145 pages. Moro begins his book by arguing that the ultimate goal of linguistics is to define the class of possible human languages, and then he poses two main questions to be addressed in the book: “Do impossible human languages exist at all? What is a language made of
{"title":"Book Review: Impossible Languages","authors":"A. Ghorbanpour","doi":"10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.167","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.167","url":null,"abstract":"Impossible Languages, written by the Italian linguist and neuroscientist Andrea Moro (2016), takes a new look at the biological foundations of language and explores what makes human language distinct from any other communication system—the “fingerprint” of human language, as the author puts it. The book is divided into 11 chapters and, together with the list of references and an index at the end of the book, contains a total of 145 pages. Moro begins his book by arguing that the ultimate goal of linguistics is to define the class of possible human languages, and then he poses two main questions to be addressed in the book: “Do impossible human languages exist at all? What is a language made of","PeriodicalId":231529,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Universal Language","volume":"187 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"133148266","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}
Pub Date : 2022-03-01DOI: 10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.77
A. Ogunsiji, Isaiah Aluya
This paper examines lexical repetition and syntactic parallelism in selected political essays of Niyi Osundare and Ray Ekpu, which have been relatively underexplored, in order to determine how they have been deployed to represent Nigeria’s socio-political concerns as well as the points of convergence and divergence in the use of these devices by both writers. M.A.K Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar served as the framework. Eighteen (18) essays were purposively sampled; 9 each from Osundare and Ekpu’s publications in Newswatch where they both published between the Second and Fourth Republics (1979–1999). The study shows that lexical repetitions underscore argument, expand the thematic range and create lexical links between words in the discourses. Syntactic parallelism creates a multidimensional representation of discourse themes such as deprivation, anarchy, civil unrest, moral decline, government’s harsh economic policies and intimidation of the press. These themes are situated within a specific context in order to reinforce their gravity. Osundare’s essays deployed the mhq patterns for effective description and thematic projection. Conversely, Ekpu’s essays use the mhq and hq patterns for effective description and thematic projection. The essays of Osundare employ the SPC 1 structure to foreground the blatant disregard for human rights while Ekpu’s employs the SPCA and SPA structures in projecting the breach of the judiciary. These devices contribute to the structure of the selected essays and create room for according emphasis and explicitness to the discourse themes. Osundare and Ekpu draw on lexical repetition and syntactic parallelism to unveil and denounce socio-political ills in the country. They employ these devices to underscore their political stance.
{"title":"Lexical Repetition and Syntactic Parallelism in Selected Political\u0000 Essays of Niyi Osundare and Ray Ekpu","authors":"A. Ogunsiji, Isaiah Aluya","doi":"10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.77","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.22425/jul.2022.23.1.77","url":null,"abstract":"This paper examines lexical repetition and syntactic parallelism in selected political essays of Niyi Osundare and Ray Ekpu, which have been relatively underexplored, in order to determine how they have been deployed to represent Nigeria’s socio-political concerns as well as the points of convergence and divergence in the use of these devices by both writers. M.A.K Halliday’s Systemic Functional Grammar served as the framework. Eighteen (18) essays were purposively sampled; 9 each from Osundare and Ekpu’s publications in Newswatch where they both published between the Second and Fourth Republics (1979–1999). The study shows that lexical repetitions underscore argument, expand the thematic range and create lexical links between words in the discourses. Syntactic parallelism creates a multidimensional representation of discourse themes such as deprivation, anarchy, civil unrest, moral decline, government’s harsh economic policies and intimidation of the press. These themes are situated within a specific context in order to reinforce their gravity. Osundare’s essays deployed the mhq patterns for effective description and thematic projection. Conversely, Ekpu’s essays use the mhq and hq patterns for effective description and thematic projection. The essays of Osundare employ the SPC 1 structure to foreground the blatant disregard for human rights while Ekpu’s employs the SPCA and SPA structures in projecting the breach of the judiciary. These devices contribute to the structure of the selected essays and create room for according emphasis and explicitness to the discourse themes. Osundare and Ekpu draw on lexical repetition and syntactic parallelism to unveil and denounce socio-political ills in the country. They employ these devices to underscore their political stance.","PeriodicalId":231529,"journal":{"name":"Journal of Universal Language","volume":"48 1","pages":"0"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0,"publicationDate":"2022-03-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"134031837","PeriodicalName":null,"FirstCategoryId":null,"ListUrlMain":null,"RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":"","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":"","EPubDate":null,"PubModel":null,"JCR":null,"JCRName":null,"Score":null,"Total":0}