Language Sciences最新文献

The article argues for a necessity to increase human awareness of language as functional biological behavior rather than simply a tool in the service of communication, by emphasizing the difference between talk and text as ontologically different semiotic phenomena characteristic of the human cognitive domain. The established tradition to view written words as linguistic signs leads the studies of natural language astray, effectively hiding its nature as biologically functional orientational behavior in a consensual domain that evolved with the evolution of our species and was not a cultural invention. Because of the identification of text with talk in linguistic semiotics, the empirical validity of the core semiotic concept of natural linguistic sign, based on the so-called semiotic triangle, is undermined. While talk is a dynamic fact of nature, text is a static artifact; it is argued, therefore, that the analytical approach to linguistic signs as objects in the world is inadequate, and the notions of first- and second-order semiotics are introduced. It is concluded that awareness of the cognitive-semiotic difference between talk and text and their respective roles in the evolution of humans may facilitate further research into the nature and origin of humanness.

This paper investigates the concept of skills or abilities using the distinction between ‘knowing that’ and ‘knowing how', as put forward by Gilbert Ryle in his 1949 book The Concept of Mind. The assertion of two forms of knowledge suggests the possibility that skills can be represented in propositional language. However, in the analysis of activities it is frequently shown that skills cannot be described ‘in words', but at best can be indicated. On the other hand, speaking is itself a skill. If we accept Karl Bühler’s (1934) use of the concept of context we see that he describes representative language above all as a skill. The paper closes with a consideration of whether and, if so, to what extent it is possible to square these two conceptions of language.

The present study aims to investigate how self-repetition is used to serve communicative purposes in Mandarin mother–child interaction, focusing particularly on mothers’ child-directed speech. The participants of this study consisted of 12 Mandarin-speaking children (4 two-year-olds, 4 three-year-olds, and 4 four-year-olds) and their mothers. Natural conversation from each mother–child dyad was collected for a total of 12 h. The occurrences of self-repetition in the data were analyzed in terms of their forms and functions. The results showed that the mothers of younger children tended to use self-repetition more frequently than the mothers of older children. The predominant form of self-repetition was expanded repetition, and the major functions were soliciting responses and emphasis. Detailed analyses showed how the mothers used the different forms of self-repetition to express various functions. It was concluded that self-repetition in child-directed speech plays an important role in facilitating mother–child interaction and that it may also reflect mothers’ sensitivity to the developing linguistic, cognitive, and communicative abilities of their children.

This study examines diachronic changes in number use in written American English from 1923 to 2008 in TIME magazine, analyzing a 170-million-token corpus. We investigate the effects of magnitudes, roundness, and representational formats on number frequency, along with the evolution of culturally salient numbers reflecting societal shifts. Utilizing Bayesian negative binomial regression for in-depth corpus analysis, our findings demonstrate a consistent influence of magnitudes and roundness, with smaller magnitudes and rounder numbers appearing more frequently. We observe a significant standardization in portraying large numbers, marked by a shift from numerical to mixed forms (e.g., “6,000,000,000” to “6 billion”) around 1940s. This reflects changes in both formal writing conventions and editorial practices of numerical representation. Our research further identifies distinct culturally significant numbers for each decade, linked to social, economic, and technological trends, underscoring the role of numerical analysis in media to decode complex cultural and societal patterns. This study contributes significantly to understanding the dynamic interplay between language, culture, and media in the context of numerical representations.

In scientific inquiry and the dissemination of knowledge, bibliographies emerge as cornerstone elements within the expansive communication system, serving multifaceted roles indispensable to scholarly dialogue and the popularization of scientific findings. This study delves into the intrinsic significance and application of bibliographies, highlighting their roles in the communication process and retrieval of diverse entities, including books, articles, and electronic resources. The construction of bibliography entries utilizes a specialized bibliographic language characterized by its quasi-natural, uncontrolled vocabulary designed to facilitate communication. The strength of this bibliographic language is notably anchored in its grammar, imparting to it a universal communicative capacity that allows for the comprehension of meanings solely through the bibliographic scheme. This research examines bibliographies embedded within scientific texts to confirm references to existing sources, aiming to assert the universality of bibliographies as a language tool in scientific communication. Through an analysis of the functions and structure of bibliographic language, it is demonstrated that such bibliographies not only enhance the flow of information but also play a crucial role in conveying reliable and verifiable data, thereby fostering the advancement of scientific discovery.

The critical period hypothesis (CPH) as an explanation of age effects on language learning has been a perennial source of contention in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). Although this hypothesis – which suggests that adult language learning is constrained by biological or maturational changes in the brain – has been based on the work of Eric Lenneberg (i.e. Biological Foundations of Language, 1967), it does not reflect Lenneberg's original biological theory of language. In this paper, the CPH is examined in light of a comprehensive review of Lenneberg's work and related disciplines. By outlining Lenneberg's notion of epigenesis in language development, it is argued that the CPH interpretation of the critical period notion that has long skewed the debate over age effects in SLA must be re-evaluated, and that any reference to “Lenneberg's CPH” can – and should – be abandoned.

When Harvey Sacks and Emanuel A. Schegloff explored the possibility of a ‘naturalistic observational discipline that could deal with the details of social action(s) rigorously, empirically, and formally’ (Schegloff and Sacks, 1973), it was not by chance that their attention was attracted by records of natural conversations and by conversation as an activity in its own right. For, in conversation, every action, every speaking turn of its participants presents itself as a clearly determinable unit with a beginning and end. This appearance is reinforced by the conversation's transcript, which presents in a seeming order, a sequence of turns. Sequence analysis was developed for ‘conversations’ from this observational basis. In this paper, the requirements and implications concerning the role of indexicality in organising and interpreting participants' turns are examined critically and it is investigated whether sequence analysis is also applicable as a proof procedure to ‘talk in interaction’ and multimodal face-to-face interaction. It is argued that unclearly determined non-verbal actions and multiple forms of simultaneous events may restrict the applicability of sequence analysis or even prevent its successful application altogether. It is argued that for different forms of (communicative) interaction and their constitutive conditions of perception an empirical investigation of the relation between simultaneity and sequentiality may be necessary.