The phylogenetic position of Tshangla

Donald Davidson challenges David Lewis’s view of conventionalized language by appealing to lexical innovation. According to the Davidsonian critique, we can and do often use completely novel and made-up expressions to communicate successfully. For example, when Busta Rhymes (2001) says “I’m about to Picasso a new picture for you,” we understand that he is promising to do something interesting and unusual. So, according to Davidson, linguistic communication can’t be fully or fundamentally conventional. This chapter explores the difference between two kinds of lexical innovation: (i) lexical innovation as it pertains to lexical items that are already in use in a given linguistic community (for example, the evolution of the term “unicorn” to indicate a special person or thing; or using “Picasso” as a verb); and (ii) lexical innovation that involves the creation of new linguistic items (like ‘mansplain’ and ‘bromance’). I evaluate whether there is a tension between treating the two the same way. My view leaves open the possibility that lexical innovation itself is not entirely conventionalized. The chapter ends by considering the question: if lexical innovation is not conventional, then can it avoid being entirely luck-dependent? And if so, how?

This study examines lexical innovations (neologisms) – words perceived by English speakers as new, referring to newly emerging objects or concepts and possessing an element of novelty in their semantics or structure. The research aims to analyze lexical innovations in terms of their dissemination across various spheres of social life in English-speaking societies. The methodological framework of the study combines general cientific methods (analysis, synthesis, classification) with linguistic approaches such as random sampling and bservation, lexical-semantic and contextual analysis, and the interpretation of dictionary definitions. The subject of the research is lexical innovations from the past decade, while the object is their structural-semantic, paradigmatic, and cognitive features.The novelty of the study lies in its systematic examination of the echanisms and means by which the English lexicon expands, integrating both linguistic and sociolinguistic analysis. Lexical innovations are explored in relation to their prevalence in key areas of social life, including odern information technologies, social media, the economy, and the COVID-19 pandemic. An analysis of empirical data revealed that the primary methods of lexical innovation include affixation, prefixation, analogy, telescoping, abbreviations, and compound word formation. The findings indicate that the most prevalent mechanisms are the telescoping method combined with analogy (≈40%) and compound word formation (≈40–45%). The practical significance of this study lies in the potential application of its results in the development of lecture courses, teaching materials, and methodological recommendations on lexicology, cognitive linguistics, and in-tercultural communication, as well as in practical English language instruction.

The article explores the dynamic use of lexical innovations and slang in contemporary international memes, which are prevalent in popular social networks such as Instagram and Facebook. Memes, as a significant phenomenon of digital culture, have evolved into a unique form of communication, blending linguistic creativity with visual content to deliver messages that are often humorous, satirical, or socially reflective. This study analyzes the structural and functional features of memes, focusing on how slang and lexical innovations contribute to their effectiveness in engaging audiences and conveying complex ideas succinctly. By investigating the specific linguistic tools utilized in memes, such as newly coined terms, idiomatic expressions, and non-standard word formations, the research highlights their role in shaping online discourse. The findings also shed light on the cultural and social implications of these linguistic phenomena, emphasizing how they reflect and influence the habits, attitudes, and practices of young people, especially those learning English as a second language. Moreover, the research identifies the primary functions of lexical innovations and slang in memes, including emotional expression, humor, and the creation of shared online identities. The analysis contributes to a broader understanding of how digital communication and language intersect, providing insights into the transformative power of memes in modern Internet discourse.

This paper aims to provide a description of how authors publishing in medical ethics journals have made use of empirical research data in papers on the topic of gamete or embryo donation by means of references to studies conducted by others (secondary use). Rather than making a direct contribution to the theoretical methodological literature about the role empirical research data could play or should play in ethics studies, the focus is on the particular uses of these data and the problems that can be encountered with this use. In the selection of papers examined, apart from being used to describe the context, empirical evidence was mainly used to recount problems that needed solving. Few of the authors looked critically at the quality of the studies they quoted, and several instances were found of empirical data being used poorly or inappropriately. This study provides some initial baseline evidence that shows empirical data, in the form of references to studies, are sometimes being used in inappropriate ways. This suggests that medical ethicists should be more concerned about the quality of the empirical data selected, the appropriateness of the choice for a particular type of data (from a particular type of study) and the correct integration of this evidence in sound argumentation. Given that empirical data can be misused also when merely cited instead of reported, it may be worthwhile to explore good practice requirements for this type of use of empirical data in medical ethics.

Comment on Blust "The Resurrection of Proto-Philippines" Malcolm Ross I thank the editors of Oceanic Linguistics for inviting me to comment on Blust's paper arguing for the integrity of a Philippine subgroup within Malayo-Polynesian (MP). As Blust critiques the rejection of Proto-Philippines (PPh) in Ross (2005), l address that paper briefly first. Accepting that all Austronesian languages outside Taiwan belong to a single branch of Austronesian that has no members in Taiwan, in 2005 it was a reasonable geography-based inference that Proto-Malayo-Polynesian (PMP) might have come into being in the Batanes Islands and, if so, that the Batanic languages were a first-order offshoot of MP. This was Ross's (2005) "History 1." The alternative hypothesis, "History 2," was that the Batanic languages were clearly MP but not a first-order offshoot and reached their current location at a later stage. The paper reached no firm conclusion but commented, as Blust notes, that "there is a greater likelihood that History 1 is correct," because the Batanic languages appear very conservative. However, "the evidence for this conclusion is circumstantial, and does not have the same status as subgrouping evidence based on shared innovations." History 1 would entail that there was no Philippine subgroup, or, if there was, that the Batanic languages did not belong to it. If I had thought a Philippine subgroup had been well established, I could not have been proposed History 1. At the time of writing, the evidence for a Philippine subgroup seemed insufficient to rule out History 1. The published evidence in 2005 consisted of the lexical innovations proposed by Zorc (1986) in response to Reid's (1982) rejection of a pan-Philippine subgroup. Since that time further data and discussion have appeared in the form of a shortish discussion in Blust (2005:34–37) with a substantial appendix of lexical innovations, and, now in Blust (2020) detailed argumentation for the integrity of PPh, including discussion of individual lexical innovations and a note of the distribution of the reflexes of each, as well as a single phonological innovation. This brings me to the question: Fifteen years on, would I write something like Ross (2005) now? I would not. The new evidence strengthens the case for a Philippine grouping of some kind with Batanic as a somewhat peripheral [End Page 366] member subgroup—but it does not unequivocally support the reconstruction of PPh in the sense that a protolanguage is usually understood. Blust proposes that PPh is now supported by a single phonological innovation, the merger of PMP *z and *d. The remainder of its innovations is lexical, and in support of PPh Blust appeals to their very large number: 1,222 in appendix 1, plus the 37 in tables 2 and 3. I have paid particular attention to the latter, as Blust labels them as "the best" or "strong" replacement innovations (henceforth, "the strong innovations"), and have also looked at the distribution of all 1,259 across his microgroups. Together with supporting data on line in Blust and Trussel (ongoing), this is a wonderful collection of reconstructions. Despite this quantity of evidence, the argument for PPh seems to me to be weak in three interrelated respects. One is that the innovations are not distributed as one would expect of a proper subgroup, that is, the exclusive descendants of a single language; the second is the putative position of Philippine languages within the MP tree; and the third is the difficulty inherent in using lexical innovations. The distribution of the innovations cited in support of PPh does not attest that the Philippine languages form a proper subgroup. A proper subgroup is ideally defined by one or more innovations shared by all its members and exclusive to the languages of that group. Such innovations must satisfy two conditions, namely (1) that the innovation has not occurred independently in various members of the subgroup and (2) that it has not been borrowed across language boundaries. This defines an ideal, and one that is rarely achieved for large language groups. Sometimes an innovation is obliterated by further innovation in some members of a group. At times...

Little is known about knowledge translation processes within medical education. Specifically, there is scant research on how and whether faculty incorporate empirical medical education knowledge into their educational practices. The authors use the conceptual framework of affordances to examine factors within the medical education practice environment that influence faculty utilization of empirical knowledge. In 2012, the authors, using a purposive sampling strategy, recruited medical education leaders in undergraduate medical education from a Canadian university. Recruits all had direct teaching and curricular development roles in either preclinical or clinical courses across the four years of the undergraduate curriculum. Data were collected through individual semistructured interviews on participants' use of empirical evidence, as well as the factors that influence integration of empirical knowledge into practice. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis. Fifteen medical educators participated. The authors identified both constraining and facilitating affordances of empirical medical education knowledge use. Constraining affordances included poor quality and availability of evidence, inadequate knowledge delivery approaches, work and role overload, faculty and student change resistance, and resource limitations. Facilitating affordances included faculty development, peer recommendations, and local involvement in medical education knowledge creation. Affordances of the medical education practice environment influence empirical knowledge use. Developing strategies for effective knowledge translation thus requires careful assessment of contextual factors that can enable, constrain, or inhibit evidence use. Empirical knowledge use is most likely to occur among medical educators who are afforded rich, facilitative opportunities for participation in creating, seeking, and implementing knowledge.

Carter and Mendis1 provide some welcome clarity to their methods to estimate Plasmodium falciparum morbidity in regions of the world outside of Africa.2 The entry point to their estimation of morbid burdens is malaria-specific deaths reported by national governments. These reflect national mortality statistics generated through civil registration systems that allow for cause of death reporting and invariably only represent deaths that occur in health facilities able to diagnose malaria. In many resource-poor settings, these recorded events represent only a small fraction of the universe of mortality in a given community.3,4 To redress this, Carter and Mendis have adjusted for under-reporting rates. How this was achieved in the absence of comparisons with prospective demographic surveillance system data remains unclear. To illustrate the problem inherent in any method using national vital event reporting systems, one need look no further than the national malaria mortality data reported in the WHO’s 2005 World Malaria Report.5 In 2003, mortality data are available for only 29 of 49 countries at risk of malaria transmission outside of Africa; a total of 5,865 malaria deaths were reported; 42% were reported from a single country—Myanmar. Sri Lanka reported only two malaria deaths. Estimates of reporting coverage were provided for only four countries. Despite this uncertainty, Carter and Mendis apply a series of country-specific case-fatality estimates derived from a combination of expert consultation, personal opinion, and unreferenced literature. This step in their calculations is critically dependent upon reliable estimates of the true incidence of malaria morbidity and mortality. The probability of a clinical event resulting in death is the subject of fierce scientific debate surrounding the relationships between acquired functional immunity,6,7 access to care,8 and the role of cross-species protection9,10 versus disease outcome. Outside Africa there are only a handful of carefully conducted studies of P. falciparum clinical incidence and mortality undertaken using active-case detection methods within well-characterized populations subjected to prospective demographic surveillance with cause-of-death attribution of all fatal events.11,12 Empirical evidence upon which to reliably model global variations in case-fatality is largely absent, and therefore estimating subregional case-fatalities must be the subject of guesswork and speculation. The area of largest uncertainty, for which Carter and Mendis fail to define in their methodology, is the denominator. The numbers of people living under differing levels of P. falciparum transmission risk is arguably the single largest determinant of precision for morbidity and mortality burdens definitions globally.13 Our approach to defining population-attributable risks involved a conservative downregulation of historically mapped global malaria endemicity distributions.14 We acknowledged that these must be improved during future iterations of the estimation of malaria burden worldwide. In 2005, we started to extend our earlier work on transmission mapping to other regions of the world using empirical parasite rate survey data within spatially explicit models of dominant vector species P. falciparum transmission globally—the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP). These should provide a more robust and dynamic approach to defining the denominators for future disease burden estimations. This is particularly important for the rapidly changing ecological context of the Western Pacific and Southeast Asian regions, which are home to some of the most densely populated malarious areas on the planet.13,14 Rather than make assumptions about the quality of national civil reporting systems, presumptions about the complex nature of case-fatality, and construct theoretical models to extrapolate morbidity incidence, we have elected to use empirical data on malaria morbidity recorded through active case-detection.14 Herein lies the most obvious difference in the estimates of malaria burden outside of Africa. In 1999, the WHO15 chose to use our method of morbidity estimation for Africa16 but adopted the method used by Mendis and colleagues2 for all other regions on the grounds that there were insufficient empirical data and maps of malaria risk to reproduce what we were able to provide for Africa. This is clearly no longer true, and our paper in Nature is the first attempt to model risks at a global scale using a single method and driven by empirical data.14 In the absence of universal, complete national health reporting systems, we must continue to use informed epidemiological approaches to estimating disease burdens worldwide. We concur with Carter and Mendis that any approach that attempts to model imperfect data will produce margins of error around the true estimate. These must be made explicit, quantified, and transparent. We are therefore grateful to the authors in their elaboration of the methods originally provided in 2001, but the authors fall short of quantifying their likely errors or providing the data used in their calculations of under-reporting of national malaria-specific mortality. Ignoring semantics, our estimates based on transparent and reproducible methods are three times higher14 than those of Carter and Mendis.2,15 Being able to compare methods, input data, and measurements of uncertainty is a fundamental prerequisite to the science that underpins global disease burden estimation.17

This study aimed to analyze confirmed cause of customer loyalty State Bank and to check the harmony. Confirmed cause of customer loyalty, state-owned banks Assumptions with empirical data. Sample of this research was the state bank customers total of 640 using multistage sampling method. The research instrument was online questionnaire. Statistics used in data analysis were descriptive and Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) Research results found that corporate social responsibility the state bank found that the correlation coefficient of the determinants of customer loyalty and empirical data on CSR was found to be CMIN/ df = 1.986. , GFI = .975, AGFI = .958, CFI = .993 RMR = .013 and RMSEA = .039, which does not exceed the standard of 0.05 . Harmonization is consistent with empirical data. Services’ Quality provided by state-owned banks was found to be consistent with the assertiveness index, customers’ loyalty, and empirical evidence of services’ quality was found to be CMIN / df = 1.960, GFI = .970, AGFI = .952, CFI = .992, RMR. = .014 and RMSEA = .039, thus, it was concluded that the harmony was consistent with the empirical data. Bank Image showed that the correlation coefficient of the determinant of the customers’ loyalty and the empirical data on the state bank image was found to be CMIN / df = 1.810, GFI = .991, AGFI = .972 CFI = .998 , RMR = .011 and RMSEA = .036, thus, it is concluded that there is harmony with empirical data. Customers’ Loyalty indexes found that the index of harmony of affirmation factors, the cause of customer loyalty, and empirical data on customer loyalty was found to be CMIN / df = 1972, GFI = .987, AGFI = .970, CFI = 0.997, RMR = .009 and RMSEA = .039 , thus concluding that there is harmony with empirical data.

The emergence of a new kind of discourse on the world stage called media discourse or media discourse produces the trends of globalization and the development of communication technologies in the world. The article deals with the phenomenon of English-language media discourse as a relatively new linguistic phenomenon. The aim of this research work is a thorough analysis of the concept of English-language media discourse, reflecting the dynamics of modern language and identifying the features of lexical innovations in English-language media discourse. The comparative analysis method, typological method, method of component analysis, and descriptive method of research were used to study the issue of English-language media discourse. Using the comparative analysis method, the saturation of linguistic innovations and their prevalence were determined. Using the typological method, the common qualities of English and Ukrainian in the projection on their variety of linguistic characteristics were established. The method of component analysis helped in the study of the content part of the newly formed linguistic units. Using the descriptive method, the modern state of English-language media discourse was characterized. As a result of the scientific research trends of modern English-language media discourse in content and form have been studied and analyzed, as well as changes in the potential of modern linguistic means through the mechanism of new word formation, which is a prospect for further scientific research in this direction.

The article reveals influence of the modern social context caused by the Covid-19 pandemic on the linguistic situation, i.e. emergence of new elements of form, content and functioning in French media discourse. Thus, the method of correlation of social and linguistic factors used in linguistics is confirmed in the study of the historical development of society by analyzing changes in its vocabulary and determining the word markers («mots-témoins») of key concepts and events. Chronologically, the research covers the first half of the year 2020. The source of factual material is the electronic versions of the French periodicals: Le Monde, Le Figaro, Le Point, L'OBS, etc. The analysis of linguistic units is accompanied by linguistic and cultural commentary and examples from Ukrainian media resources. The lexical corpus consists of medical terms and specialized vocabulary units related to education, media and society in the context of the coronavirus crisis. The article highlights the position of the French Academy as for grammatical forms, semantic features and functional characteristics of linguistic innovations. The peculiarities of use of certain key lexical innovations are compared on the material of periodicals in France, Belgium (Le Soir, DH.be) and Canada (Le Journal de Québec). The nominative function of the investigated lexemes in the media discourse is accompanied by stylistic coloring through metaphorization aimed to stress out the axiological and pragmatic functions of the journalistic text. The active use of this specific vocabulary is confirmed by the presence of synonymous series. The studied material revealed the use of English-language borrowings, which may become the subject of a separate analysis. A characteristic feature of these words is their derivational productivity, which leads to their widespread use in various linguistic registers. The list of the lexical innovations mentioned in the article is not exhaustive, since the problems associated with the coronavirus pandemic prompt active scientific and social activities that will inevitably be reflected in the language.

SEER, Vol. 86,No. 3, July 2008 Reviews Sussex, Roland and Cubberley, Paul. The Slavic Languages. Cambridge Language Surveys. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge and New York, 2006. xix + 638 pp. Map. Tables. Figures. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. ?85.00. The authors nail their colours to themast right from the startof thisbook by declaring 'Slavic comprises 13 languages split into three groups: South Slav ic, which includes Bosnian, Serbian and Croatian. ..' (p. i), although many regard these three as variants of one language. Obviously political as well as linguistic criteria affect the choice. However, the authors take a thoroughly linguistic approach to their survey of the structure of the Slavonic languages, principally thosewith official status.They begin with an introduction detailing how they approached the study and examining the languages of the South, East and West Slavs, their variants and nomenclature, and their genetic clas sification and typology.There follow eleven chapters covering their linguistic evolution, genetic affiliation and classification, their socio-historical evolution, theirphonology, theirmorphophonology, their inflectionalmorphology, their syntactic categories and morphosyntax, their sentence structure, their word formation, their lexis, their dialects, and some socio-linguistic issues. Three appendices give abbreviations, orthography and transliteration, and resources for studying Slavonic linguistics.Although written by two leading scholars in the traditional format for linguistic studies (withnumbered examples and several levels of numbered headings), the work is accessible to the more general reader 'with some competence in descriptive linguistics' (p. 13) and is quite comprehensive despite some selectiveness. It will certainly be welcomed by scholars and students of theSlavonic languages and other linguisticians and linguistswho need an entrypoint into the Slavonic field. The first two chapters deal with the prehistory of Slavonic, its connection with Indo-European and Baltic, the phonology, morphology and syntax of Proto-Slavonic, the subdivision of Slavonic, which examines the main features of each of the three families of Slavonic languages, and the socio-historical evolution of the three families: South Slavonic (Old Church Slavonic and Church Slavonic, Bulgarian, Macedonian, Serbo-Croatian, Serbian, Croatian and Bosnian, and Slovenian), East Slavonic (Russian, Ukrainian and Belaru sian) and West Slavonic (Polish, Upper and Lower Sorbian, Kashubian and Slovincian, Polabian, Czech and Slovak). An overview is presented at the end of each chapter. The third chapter examines the development of the Proto-Slavonic vowel and consonant systems, sound combinations and suprasegmental features (stress, quantity, tone), together with the modern vowel and consonant sys tems (phonemes, phonetics) and suprasegmentals. Starting with an overview, the chapter on morphophonology deals with separate and combined vowel and consonant alternations and themorphological typology of alternations (noun, adjective and verb inflexions and word formation). There is a section on morphophonology and Slavonic orthographies. The chapter on 514 SEER, 86, 3, JULY 2008 morphology begins with an overview before coveringmorphological categories and structures,morphological word classes, inflectional categories (number, case, definiteness and deixis, gender, person, tense, aspect, voice and mood) and paradigms (nouns, the adjective and determiner declension, firstand second person pronouns and the reflexive pronoun, numerals and verbs, including athematic and auxiliary verbs). The sixth chapter covers syntactic units, syntactic roles and relations (concord, agreement, government and case) and the syntax and morphosyntax of aspect. The chapter on sentence structure begins with an overview and covers definiteness, questions, negation, imperatives, passives, conditionals, possession, coordinate and subordinate constructions, and specific construc tion types (pronouns and anaphora, reflexives, apersonal and impersonal constructions, indirect speech, participial and gerundial constructions, and ellipsis and deletion), together with word order and the Prague School's concept of functional sentence perspective. As various types of word formation (e.g. prefixation, suffixation, root combination, mixed types) are looked at in nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs and other parts of speech, morphophonological features of word forma tion are also examined. The next chapter considers patterns of lexis, lexical composition and sources in the modern Slavonic languages, coexistent lexical strata (e.g. Church Slavonic and Russian inRussian, Russian and Turkish in Bulgarian), root exploitation (including lexical specialization and verbs of motion), lexical innovations, both indigenous (e.g. compounding, abbreviated words) and externally influenced (borrowing, caiques), and post-Communist lexis. The tenth chapter, after an overview, examines dialects of the main South, East and West Slavonic languages, while the final chapter...

The chapter assesses the phylogenetic position of Armenian within the Indo-European language family. After examining the most important, independent developments constituting Armenian as a separate language branch, it discusses those phonological, morphological, and lexical innovations that are shared with, in particular, Greek, Phrygian and Albanian. It then argues that these innovations are sufficiently numerous and significant to posit that together with those languages, Armenian belongs to a higher-order subgroup, Balkan Indo-European.

The chapter surveys the history of both the external and the internal classification of the Kwa family of languages within the Niger-Congo phylum. While Benue-Congo plays a primary role with respect to external relations, the hotly debated issue of the internal cohesion of the family as a whole is a central question in the discussion of Kwa subgrouping. The chapter takes a critical look at the arguments that have been brought forward in this discussion, in particular those involving lexicostatistics, lexical innovation, and sound changes, and establishes five subgroups that are considered to be uncontested. In addition, this chapter discusses contact phenomena within the Kwa family.

Sino-Tibetan (Trans-Himalayan) is one of the typologically most diverse language families in the world, one of the few comprising all gradients of morphological complexity, from isolating to polysynthetic. No consensus exists as yet on whether the rich morphology found in some languages, in particular person indexation, should be reconstructed in the common Sino-Tibetan ancestor or whether it is a later innovation confined to and defining a particular “Rung” subgroup. In this article, we argue that this question is fundamentally a problem of phylogeny, and that the results of recent works on the phylogeny of Sino-Tibetan, supplemented by a more refined investigation of shared lexical innovations, provide support for the idea that person indexation morphology is not a recent innovation and that the languages lacking such a feature are thus innovative.

The purpose of this study is to secure empirical analysis data and evidence through an empirical study on the impact of the presidential impeachment experience in Korea on the morality and citizenship of Korean college students, and to propose educational policy establishment and follow-up academic research directions and tasks that support the creation of an ecosystem conducive to the development of morality and citizenship of Korean college students based on this. The necessity of this study is to secure academic diversity in research related to presidential impeachment, secure empirical data and evidence through an empirical study on the impact of presidential impeachment on Korean society and culture, especially on the development of values, citizenship, and morality of college students who will be the central generation of society in the future, and establish a plan to create an ecosystem that can help Korean college students grow into ethical citizens based on the empirical data and evidence obtained from the results of the empirical study.