This study focuses on how 15 Romanian literary translators metaphorically conceptualize their own role and importance and the role and significance of their translations. The aim of the analysis is to see what kind of source text–target text and author–translator relationships the conceptual metaphors suggested reflect, to zoom in on the status of the translator and of the translated text that may be inferred based on these conceptualizations and, finally, to see whether they support the traditional source vs target-orientation dichotomy in translation or call for a more hermeneutic-oriented approach.
{"title":"Metaphorical images in the mirror: How Romanian literary translators see themselves and their translations","authors":"Loredana Pungă","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0253","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0253","url":null,"abstract":"This study focuses on how 15 Romanian literary translators metaphorically conceptualize their own role and importance and the role and significance of their translations. The aim of the analysis is to see what kind of source text–target text and author–translator relationships the conceptual metaphors suggested reflect, to zoom in on the status of the translator and of the translated text that may be inferred based on these conceptualizations and, finally, to see whether they support the traditional source vs target-orientation dichotomy in translation or call for a more hermeneutic-oriented approach.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-09","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138560281","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}
Technology in the context of education is a subject of debate, from a very positive experience that promotes learning to a very negative one that prohibits the use of various smart devices, tools, programmes, and platforms in the classroom. The problem is how to find a balance between the two positions and how to encourage teachers to introduce possibilities of technologies to benefit the general education process. The topic of machine translation in educational contexts has gained the attention of the research community only recently. Previous studies not only point to the benefits that the technology may bring to the classroom, especially in foreign language learning, but also report mixed views of educators. This study, which is based on the findings from a survey of Lithuanian secondary school teachers, seeks to explore the current status of the inclusion of machine translation in the educational process from teachers’ perspective to envisage the teacher’s role as a facilitator or a mediator in developing children’s machine translation literacy. The conclusions that can be drawn imply that machine translation is rarely considered to be a useful technology by teachers, and its benefits are either unknown or underestimated. Therefore, the need for machine translation literacy instruction emerges.
{"title":"On the uses of machine translation for education purposes: Attitudes and perceptions of Lithuanian teachers","authors":"Ramunė Kasperė, Vilmantė Liubinienė","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0254","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0254","url":null,"abstract":"Technology in the context of education is a subject of debate, from a very positive experience that promotes learning to a very negative one that prohibits the use of various smart devices, tools, programmes, and platforms in the classroom. The problem is how to find a balance between the two positions and how to encourage teachers to introduce possibilities of technologies to benefit the general education process. The topic of machine translation in educational contexts has gained the attention of the research community only recently. Previous studies not only point to the benefits that the technology may bring to the classroom, especially in foreign language learning, but also report mixed views of educators. This study, which is based on the findings from a survey of Lithuanian secondary school teachers, seeks to explore the current status of the inclusion of machine translation in the educational process from teachers’ perspective to envisage the teacher’s role as a facilitator or a mediator in developing children’s machine translation literacy. The conclusions that can be drawn imply that machine translation is rarely considered to be a useful technology by teachers, and its benefits are either unknown or underestimated. Therefore, the need for machine translation literacy instruction emerges.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-07","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138559807","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}
The Alpine region stands out in the German-speaking world for its well-preserved traditional dialects, which continue to play a significant role in daily life. However, the vast geographical range of the Alpine region and the limitations imposed by national and regional borders have hindered comprehensive investigations of the entire Alpine area. To overcome these obstacles, this study utilizes crowdsourcing data from the VerbaAlpina project to investigate phonological and morpho-phonological variation in the German-speaking Alpine region. Although the data were collected in a written form and with a focus on lexical variation, it is shown that the data contain detailed phonological information. By using multivariate dialectometric measurements (i.e. factor analysis [FA]) based on 19 (morpho-)phonological variables (comprising 8,582 tokens), the study explores the geolinguistic structures of the German dialects in the Alpine region. The results confirm, on a general level, the validity of the traditionally established dialect classification. However, the findings also reveal previously underrated border effects, in particular for Bavarian dialects along the German-Austrian border, which are argued to be the outcome of divergence processes. Hence, the study highlights the importance of cross-dialectal and cross-national perspectives in understanding dialect variation and emphasizes the value of crowdsourcing data for dialectological research.
{"title":"Geolinguistic structures of dialect phonology in the German-speaking Alpine region: A dialectometric approach using crowdsourcing data","authors":"Philip C. Vergeiner, Lars Bülow","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0252","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0252","url":null,"abstract":"The Alpine region stands out in the German-speaking world for its well-preserved traditional dialects, which continue to play a significant role in daily life. However, the vast geographical range of the Alpine region and the limitations imposed by national and regional borders have hindered comprehensive investigations of the entire Alpine area. To overcome these obstacles, this study utilizes crowdsourcing data from the VerbaAlpina project to investigate phonological and morpho-phonological variation in the German-speaking Alpine region. Although the data were collected in a written form and with a focus on lexical variation, it is shown that the data contain detailed phonological information. By using multivariate dialectometric measurements (i.e. factor analysis [FA]) based on 19 (morpho-)phonological variables (comprising 8,582 tokens), the study explores the geolinguistic structures of the German dialects in the Alpine region. The results confirm, on a general level, the validity of the traditionally established dialect classification. However, the findings also reveal previously underrated border effects, in particular for Bavarian dialects along the German-Austrian border, which are argued to be the outcome of divergence processes. Hence, the study highlights the importance of cross-dialectal and cross-national perspectives in understanding dialect variation and emphasizes the value of crowdsourcing data for dialectological research.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-12-06","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138547529","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}
This study aims to show how different political leaders ideologically position themselves in the discourse of ‘problem frame’ in their first national response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To analyse the ideological nature of the ‘problem frame’, 17 leaders’ national lockdown speeches from different countries were collected and analysed within the theoretical framework of critical metaphor studies and frame semantics. Procedurally, metaphors in the collected speeches were identified by applying Pragglejaz Group’s MIP (2007) and MIPVU (2010), and coded into thematic categories via NVivo 12.0. Overall, 19 thematic codes (1,045 metaphorical expressions) were established, and their content analysis demonstrated specific differences in gender performance of a national health policy during the pandemic. It has been clarified that crisis political discourse is not that much affected by gender double bind, and female speakers openly display their femininity by focusing a lot on sensitivity and nurturance. By contrast, male speakers overwhelmingly follow a standardised competitive frame with emotional moments aimed at a more aggressive response to the pandemic and focusing on populist sentiment.
{"title":"Leadership style by metaphor in crisis political discourse","authors":"Liudmila Arcimavičienė","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0251","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0251","url":null,"abstract":"This study aims to show how different political leaders ideologically position themselves in the discourse of ‘problem frame’ in their first national response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. To analyse the ideological nature of the ‘problem frame’, 17 leaders’ national lockdown speeches from different countries were collected and analysed within the theoretical framework of critical metaphor studies and frame semantics. Procedurally, metaphors in the collected speeches were identified by applying Pragglejaz Group’s MIP (2007) and MIPVU (2010), and coded into thematic categories via NVivo 12.0. Overall, 19 thematic codes (1,045 metaphorical expressions) were established, and their content analysis demonstrated specific differences in gender performance of a national health policy during the pandemic. It has been clarified that crisis political discourse is not that much affected by gender double bind, and female speakers openly display their femininity by focusing a lot on sensitivity and nurturance. By contrast, male speakers overwhelmingly follow a standardised competitive frame with emotional moments aimed at a more aggressive response to the pandemic and focusing on populist sentiment.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-25","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138519186","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}
Most corpora tacitly subscribe to a speech-only view filtering out anything that is not a ‘word’ and transcribing the spoken language merely orthographically despite the fact that the “speech-only view on language is fundamentally incomplete” (Kok 2017, 2) due to the deep intertwining of the verbal, vocal, and kinesic modalities (Levinson and Holler 2014). This article introduces the Freiburg Multimodal Interaction Corpus (FreMIC), a multimodal and interactional corpus of unscripted conversation in English currently under construction. At the time of writing, FreMIC comprises (i) c. 29 h of video-recordings transcribed and annotated in detail and (ii) automatically (and manually) generated multimodal data. All conversations are transcribed in ELAN both orthographically and using Jeffersonian conventions to render verbal content and interactionally relevant details of sequencing (e.g. overlap, latching), temporal aspects (pauses, acceleration/deceleration), phonological aspects (e.g. intensity, pitch, stretching, truncation, voice quality), and laughter. Moreover, the orthographic transcriptions are exhaustively PoS-tagged using the CLAWS web tagger (Garside and Smith 1997). ELAN-based transcriptions also provide exhaustive annotations of re-enactments (also referred to as (free) direct speech, constructed dialogue, etc.) as well as silent gestures (meaningful gestures that occur without accompanying speech). The multimodal data are derived from psychophysiological measurements and eye tracking. The psychophysiological measurements include, inter alia, electrodermal activity or GSR, which is indicative of emotional arousal (e.g. Peräkylä et al. 2015). Eye tracking produces data of two kinds: gaze direction and pupil size. In FreMIC, gazes are automatically recorded using the area-of-interest technology. Gaze direction is interactionally key, for example, in turn-taking (e.g. Auer 2021) and re-enactments (e.g. Pfeiffer and Weiss 2022), while changes in pupil size provide a window onto cognitive intensity (e.g. Barthel and Sauppe 2019). To demonstrate what opportunities FreMIC’s (combination of) transcriptions, annotations, and multimodal data open up for research in Interactional (Corpus) Linguistics, this article reports on interim results derived from work-in-progress.
大多数语料库默认只支持语音视图,过滤掉任何不是“单词”的东西,仅仅按正字法转录口语,尽管事实上“语言的语音视图基本上是不完整的”(Kok 2017, 2),因为言语、声音和动作模式的深度交织(Levinson和Holler 2014)。本文介绍了Freiburg多模态交互语料库(Freiburg Multimodal Interaction Corpus, FreMIC),这是一个目前正在建设中的多模态和交互的无脚本英语会话语料库。在撰写本文时,FreMIC包括(i) c. 29小时的视频记录的详细转录和注释,以及(ii)自动(和手动)生成的多模式数据。所有的对话都是在ELAN中正字法转录的,并使用杰斐逊的约定来呈现口头内容和交互相关的顺序细节(例如重叠、闩锁)、时间方面(暂停、加速/减速)、语音方面(例如强度、音高、拉伸、截断、音质)和笑声。此外,正字法转录是详尽的pos标记使用爪网络标签(Garside和史密斯1997年)。基于elan的转录还提供了详尽的再现注释(也称为(自由)直接语音、构造对话等)以及无声手势(没有伴随语音的有意义的手势)。多模态数据来源于心理生理测量和眼动追踪。心理生理测量包括,除其他外,皮电活动或GSR,这是情绪唤醒的指示(例如Peräkylä et al. 2015)。眼动追踪产生两种数据:凝视方向和瞳孔大小。在FreMIC中,使用感兴趣区域技术自动记录注视。例如,在轮流(例如Auer 2021)和重演(例如Pfeiffer和Weiss 2022)中,凝视方向是互动的关键,而瞳孔大小的变化为认知强度提供了一个窗口(例如Barthel和Sauppe 2019)。为了证明FreMIC(组合)的转录、注释和多模态数据为交互(语料库)语言学的研究提供了什么机会,本文报告了从正在进行的工作中获得的中期结果。
{"title":"Reaching beneath the tip of the iceberg: A guide to the Freiburg Multimodal Interaction Corpus","authors":"Christoph Rühlemann, Alexander Ptak","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0245","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0245","url":null,"abstract":"Most corpora tacitly subscribe to a speech-only view filtering out anything that is not a ‘word’ and transcribing the spoken language merely orthographically despite the fact that the “speech-only view on language is fundamentally incomplete” (Kok 2017, 2) due to the deep intertwining of the verbal, vocal, and kinesic modalities (Levinson and Holler 2014). This article introduces the Freiburg Multimodal Interaction Corpus (FreMIC), a multimodal and interactional corpus of unscripted conversation in English currently under construction. At the time of writing, FreMIC comprises (i) c. 29 h of video-recordings transcribed and annotated in detail and (ii) automatically (and manually) generated multimodal data. All conversations are transcribed in ELAN both orthographically and using Jeffersonian conventions to render verbal content and interactionally relevant details of sequencing (e.g. overlap, latching), temporal aspects (pauses, acceleration/deceleration), phonological aspects (e.g. intensity, pitch, stretching, truncation, voice quality), and laughter. Moreover, the orthographic transcriptions are exhaustively PoS-tagged using the CLAWS web tagger (Garside and Smith 1997). ELAN-based transcriptions also provide exhaustive annotations of re-enactments (also referred to as (free) direct speech, constructed dialogue, etc.) as well as silent gestures (meaningful gestures that occur without accompanying speech). The multimodal data are derived from psychophysiological measurements and eye tracking. The psychophysiological measurements include, inter alia, electrodermal activity or GSR, which is indicative of emotional arousal (e.g. Peräkylä et al. 2015). Eye tracking produces data of two kinds: gaze direction and pupil size. In FreMIC, gazes are automatically recorded using the area-of-interest technology. Gaze direction is interactionally key, for example, in turn-taking (e.g. Auer 2021) and re-enactments (e.g. Pfeiffer and Weiss 2022), while changes in pupil size provide a window onto cognitive intensity (e.g. Barthel and Sauppe 2019). To demonstrate what opportunities FreMIC’s (combination of) transcriptions, annotations, and multimodal data open up for research in Interactional (Corpus) Linguistics, this article reports on interim results derived from work-in-progress.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-11-17","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"138519206","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}
Abstract Novice translation graduates are often found to be slow translators. The fact that this deficiency is usually rectified through professional experience implies that initial performance issues are the outcome of a complex interplay of factors, which do not involve intrinsic abilities. Based on insights from cognitively oriented research on students’ beliefs about language learning and the impact these beliefs have on students’ performance, the present study posits that the beliefs students have towards the question of translation speed represent one of the factors that fashion their productivity. Targeting graduates from the English Language and Translation programme at a private university in an Arab Gulf State, a mixed method approach, including a survey and a semi-structured interview, was adopted to explore the beliefs students have towards the question of speed and to identify the sources of these beliefs in their training programme. Analysis reveals that productivity awareness among the investigated population is almost non-existent and points at the predominantly product-oriented approach that characterises their learning experience as the main source of this condition. This article argues that improving students’ awareness of productivity requirements is not just a case of integrating timed activities, but calls for the adoption of multi-layered process-oriented training principles and practices at the level of delivery, feedback, and assessment criteria.
{"title":"Beliefs on translation speed among students. A case study","authors":"R. Jamoussi, Aladdin Al Zahran, K. Kadhim","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0228","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0228","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Novice translation graduates are often found to be slow translators. The fact that this deficiency is usually rectified through professional experience implies that initial performance issues are the outcome of a complex interplay of factors, which do not involve intrinsic abilities. Based on insights from cognitively oriented research on students’ beliefs about language learning and the impact these beliefs have on students’ performance, the present study posits that the beliefs students have towards the question of translation speed represent one of the factors that fashion their productivity. Targeting graduates from the English Language and Translation programme at a private university in an Arab Gulf State, a mixed method approach, including a survey and a semi-structured interview, was adopted to explore the beliefs students have towards the question of speed and to identify the sources of these beliefs in their training programme. Analysis reveals that productivity awareness among the investigated population is almost non-existent and points at the predominantly product-oriented approach that characterises their learning experience as the main source of this condition. This article argues that improving students’ awareness of productivity requirements is not just a case of integrating timed activities, but calls for the adoption of multi-layered process-oriented training principles and practices at the level of delivery, feedback, and assessment criteria.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"44565971","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}
Abstract I describe and compare two strategies to form rhetorical questions (RQs) in Sm’algyax (Tsimshianic). I show that one kind is isomorphic to ordinary, information-seeking questions, and is compatible with positive and negative answers, while the second is marked with irrealis morphology and only allows negative answers. I provide evidence from answerability and embedding to suggest that both types of RQs in Sm’algyax behave like questions in terms of their syntax/semantics, and propose that the irrealis subordinator present in the second type signals to the addressee that a negative answer is expected. These findings have implications for the presence of irrealis and subjunctive morphology appearing in RQs crosslinguistically.
{"title":"Irrealis-marked interrogatives as rhetorical questions","authors":"Colin Brown","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0239","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0239","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract I describe and compare two strategies to form rhetorical questions (RQs) in Sm’algyax (Tsimshianic). I show that one kind is isomorphic to ordinary, information-seeking questions, and is compatible with positive and negative answers, while the second is marked with irrealis morphology and only allows negative answers. I provide evidence from answerability and embedding to suggest that both types of RQs in Sm’algyax behave like questions in terms of their syntax/semantics, and propose that the irrealis subordinator present in the second type signals to the addressee that a negative answer is expected. These findings have implications for the presence of irrealis and subjunctive morphology appearing in RQs crosslinguistically.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48000549","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}
Abstract Factors in sound change are still a major subject of debate in the field of linguistics, with the frequency factor perhaps being the most controversial. The present article focuses on palatalization of the velars before high front vowels and glides in Northern Mandarin, because palatalization stretched for more than 100 years and can provide detailed information concerning its contour. Based on a statistical analysis of corpus data of palatalization in Northern Mandarin, the present article argues that the factor of frequency is positively associated with palatalization and the factor of frequency change is negatively associated. Morphosyntactic structure and word class are also claimed to be factors in sound change. However, neither of these two factors has emerged as significant in the current study.
{"title":"Factors in sound change: A quantitative analysis of palatalization in Northern Mandarin","authors":"Shan Liu","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0226","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0226","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Factors in sound change are still a major subject of debate in the field of linguistics, with the frequency factor perhaps being the most controversial. The present article focuses on palatalization of the velars before high front vowels and glides in Northern Mandarin, because palatalization stretched for more than 100 years and can provide detailed information concerning its contour. Based on a statistical analysis of corpus data of palatalization in Northern Mandarin, the present article argues that the factor of frequency is positively associated with palatalization and the factor of frequency change is negatively associated. Morphosyntactic structure and word class are also claimed to be factors in sound change. However, neither of these two factors has emerged as significant in the current study.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"45522315","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}
Abstract This article reports on an empirical study investigating what makes Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) unwilling to speak English, regardless of their learning period, proficiency level, and location of the communication. The current study focuses on the self-perception of second language (L2) English abilities, anxiety, and interlocutors as possible causes of their unwillingness to speak L2 English, compared with first language (L1) Japanese. An online questionnaire was administered to 27 Japanese undergraduate students (age: 19–22) with non-English majors at a national university in Tokyo, Japan. The results show that the elements depressing the self-perception and willingness to speak are fundamental to managing human relationships in speaking situations, which have more impact on L2 English than L1 Japanese contexts. This is attributable to other-directedness, which has been discussed as being characteristic of Japanese and Chinese EFL learners. Furthermore, it appears plausible to assume that the other-directedness derives more from “considerations for others” than “face-saving.” Future work will further investigate what constitutes Japanese other-directedness, compared with Chinese EFL learners’.
{"title":"Interpreting unwillingness to speak L2 English by Japanese EFL learners","authors":"Akiko Muroya","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0227","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0227","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract This article reports on an empirical study investigating what makes Japanese learners of English as a foreign language (EFL) unwilling to speak English, regardless of their learning period, proficiency level, and location of the communication. The current study focuses on the self-perception of second language (L2) English abilities, anxiety, and interlocutors as possible causes of their unwillingness to speak L2 English, compared with first language (L1) Japanese. An online questionnaire was administered to 27 Japanese undergraduate students (age: 19–22) with non-English majors at a national university in Tokyo, Japan. The results show that the elements depressing the self-perception and willingness to speak are fundamental to managing human relationships in speaking situations, which have more impact on L2 English than L1 Japanese contexts. This is attributable to other-directedness, which has been discussed as being characteristic of Japanese and Chinese EFL learners. Furthermore, it appears plausible to assume that the other-directedness derives more from “considerations for others” than “face-saving.” Future work will further investigate what constitutes Japanese other-directedness, compared with Chinese EFL learners’.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"48136504","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}
Abstract Natural language meaning has properties of both cognitive representations and formal/mathematical structures. But it is not clear how they actually relate to one another. The central aim of this article is to show that properties of cognitive representations and formal/mathematical structures of natural language meaning, albeit apparently divergent, can be united, as far as the basic properties of semantic structures are concerned. Thus, this article will formulate the form of unified representations for semantic structures. With this goal, this article takes into account standard formal-semantic representations and also Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) representations on the one hand and semantic representations in different versions of Conceptual/Cognitive Semantics (Jackendoff’s, Langacker’s and Talmy’s approaches to Conceptual/Cognitive Semantics) and representations of Mental Spaces (Fauconnier’s approach) on the other hand. The rationale behind the selection of these approaches is that the representations of semantic structures under these approaches are all amenable to unification. It must be emphasized that showing that the representations of semantic structures under these approaches can be unified does not simply amount to unifying these theories/approaches in toto. Rather, it is to demonstrate that cognitive representations and formal/mathematical structures can be shown to be inter-translatable for at least some accounts of linguistic meaning.
{"title":"Towards a unified representation of linguistic meaning","authors":"P. Mondal","doi":"10.1515/opli-2022-0225","DOIUrl":"https://doi.org/10.1515/opli-2022-0225","url":null,"abstract":"Abstract Natural language meaning has properties of both cognitive representations and formal/mathematical structures. But it is not clear how they actually relate to one another. The central aim of this article is to show that properties of cognitive representations and formal/mathematical structures of natural language meaning, albeit apparently divergent, can be united, as far as the basic properties of semantic structures are concerned. Thus, this article will formulate the form of unified representations for semantic structures. With this goal, this article takes into account standard formal-semantic representations and also Discourse Representation Theory (DRT) representations on the one hand and semantic representations in different versions of Conceptual/Cognitive Semantics (Jackendoff’s, Langacker’s and Talmy’s approaches to Conceptual/Cognitive Semantics) and representations of Mental Spaces (Fauconnier’s approach) on the other hand. The rationale behind the selection of these approaches is that the representations of semantic structures under these approaches are all amenable to unification. It must be emphasized that showing that the representations of semantic structures under these approaches can be unified does not simply amount to unifying these theories/approaches in toto. Rather, it is to demonstrate that cognitive representations and formal/mathematical structures can be shown to be inter-translatable for at least some accounts of linguistic meaning.","PeriodicalId":43803,"journal":{"name":"Open Linguistics","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8,"publicationDate":"2023-01-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":null,"resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":"47909235","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}