Contact Situations Research Articles

Just Enough English to Get by: Language Practices of Transnational Migrants in Chinese Stores in Cape Town, South Africa

Abstract The presence of a Chinese community in South Africa has become increasingly visible over the last decade, particularly in the trading sector. This is illustrated in the sizable number of new shopping centres settled specifically by groups of Chinese traders, known as China Towns. Shopkeepers and shop assistants come from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds, China and other African countries respectively, but living and working in a multilingual South Africa, they communicate in English, which is the lingua franca. This paper explores their language practices and reflects on a particular language contact situation where shopkeepers and assistants of various migrant origins work closely together. The study adopts a linguistic ethnographic approach to the analysis of the interaction between shopkeepers and assistants and uses conversation analysis to elucidate the ways in which meaning is negotiated and understood in interaction between multilingual speakers. Unscripted audio recorded spoken interaction of the participants throughout the workday is the primary source of data. Additionally, interviews and observational notes are used to supplement the interactional data and illustrate the creative forms of language use that emerge in a in a China Town centre near Cape Town in the Western Cape.

A video-based analysis of situations bearing the risk of respiratory disease transmission during football matches

We aimed to analyze the number and type of contacts involving the risk of respiratory disease transmission during football match play. We analysed 50 matches from different playing levels. Two reviewers evaluated the contacts of all players in each match. We focused on between-player contacts, crowding, actions with potentially increased aerosol and droplet production and within-player hand-to-head contacts. We categorized the duels with direct contact into frontal and other ones and measured contact duration. The number of between-player contacts were similar between playing levels (median 28.3 [IQR 22.6, 33] contacts per player-hour). Frontal contacts summed up to 8% of all contacts. Contacts involving the head occurred less than once per player and match with none lasting longer than 3 s. Crowding included between two and six players and the duration was mostly less than 10 s. Aerosol and droplet producing activities were three to four times more frequent in adult compared to youth players. Our results suggest that the risk of respiratory pathogen transmission is low during football matches. This conclusion is based on the finding that most close contact situations are of short duration and on the fact that it is an outdoor sport.

A Note on Parameter Setting in Contact Situations

This paper revisits the study of linguistic variation within the Government and Binding approach to parameters, pointing out some limitations of parameter schemata in language contact scenarios. Discussion is focused on the possibility that clustering effects (the schemata themselves) are more complex than conventional approaches suggest. We outline an alternative approach, directly connected to Uriagereka’s typology or parameters, which is itself based on Chomsky’s Theory of Formal Languages. Empirically, we focus on language contact situations, as they provide cases where variation by contact operates under what we call an Excess of Stimulus, whereby access to the relevant data is overwhelming, but somehow ignored by learners.

Change of Tōhoku dialect spoken in Hawaii

AbstractThis study investigates changes in Tōhoku dialect speakers’ phonology after their immigration to Hawaii, specifically concerning intervocalic voicing and alveolar/palatal mergers. Tōhoku dialect is known for its unique phonology compared to other Japanese dialects and, for this reason, it is often stigmatized. Previous studies of second dialect acquisition have suggested that older speakers tend to retain the phonological features of their original dialects during dialect contact situations. The results from adult Japanese plantation immigrants, as expected, suggested that adult Tōhoku dialect speakers demonstrated limitations in acquiring second dialect phonology in their contact with non-Tōhoku dialect speakers. However, there are different degrees of second dialect acquisition between the intervocalic voicing and alveolar/palatal mergers among the Tōhoku dialect immigrants who interacted with non-Tōhoku dialect speakers on a daily basis and those who did not; namely, the former eliminated the stereotypical stigmatized Tōhoku dialect feature – the mergers – more than those speakers who did not have such frequent interaction. This suggests that both sociolinguistic factors, e.g., dialect discrimination by peers, as well as relative phonological complexity, influence the rates of second dialect acquisition.

Improving robotic impedance control performance employing a cascaded controller based on virtual dynamics model

We propose a cascaded impedance control algorithm based on a virtual dynamics model (VDM) to achieve robust and effective mechanical impedance for a robot interacting with unknown environments. This cascaded controller consists of an internal loop of virtual impedance control based on a VDM and an external loop of impedance reference control. The VDM-based virtual impedance control can achieve the same effect as the conventional admittance control; its intermediate output of force/torque serves as the input for the external loop reference impedance control. Therefore, this cascaded controller shows superior performance by combining the advantages of admittance control and impedance control. We evaluate the controller in multiple-contact experiments on a six-degrees of freedom (6-DOF) industrial robot manipulator. The result shows that under various contact situations such as soft and rigid surfaces and free space, the proposed method can rapidly track the target and effectively maintain stability. In the experiments conducted on the robot in contact with various environments, the proposed control method reduced the steady-state error by more than 20% compared with the conventional admittance control.

Migrants' Social Integration and Its Relevance for National Identification: An Empirical Comparison Across Three Social Spheres.

A key element of migrants’ well-being is their emotional integration, that is, the extent to which they perceive themselves as members of society and their identification with the country they are living in. To foster this sense of belonging, many integration programs aim to increase the migrants’ social integration, for example, by organizing events for migrants to meet natives in various settings. The validity of this strategy is supported by decades of international research. It remains unclear, however, which aspects of social integration are most relevant for national identification. Multiple theories concerned with contact and group identification support the assumption that contact to natives should foster a sense of belonging and national identification. However, for a contact situation to bear this potential, a certain set of criteria, including aspects like direct personal contact, a similar social status, and the presence of egalitarian norms, needs to be fulfilled. It is expected that these characteristics are more likely to be fulfilled within family and friendship settings than in contact situations within the employment context. Hence, I expect contact to natives within the network of friends and family to be more greatly associated with migrants’ national identification. I analyzed data from a 2013 cooperation between the Institute for Employment Research (IAB) and the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP), that is, the IAB-SOEP Migration Sample, as well as the 2014 wave of the SOEP. The subsample used included 2,780 first- and second-generation migrants living in Germany. The results indicate that not all kinds of contact are equally linked to national identification. In contrast to expectations, in neither the cross-sectional models nor the lagged models was living together with native family members significantly linked to national identification. Similarly, the association between having predominantly native co-workers and national identification was insignificant when controlling for migrant-specific characteristics. Only the relation with having predominantly native friends was significant and positive across all models. This as well as a comparison of the associations lead to the conclusion that when it comes to migrants’ national identification native friends might be the most relevant form of contact to natives.

Virtual Validation of Power and Force Limiting Setups in Human-Robot-Collaboration

Industrial applications with physical human-robot-interaction that rely on the application principal “Power and force limiting” require to verify the biomechanical load acting on the operator during a contact to ensure compliance with applicable standards. The related force and pressure measurements can only be carried out after a specific application is built up. Existing approaches to determine the biomechanical load range from simulations over setups with crash test dummies or biofidel measurement devices to studies with humans. Studies with humans are suited to define thresholds for biomechanical loads but not to verify them on a real application. To some extent, dynamic simulations can estimate the biomechanical load in unconstrained contact situations but are limited in case of constrained contacts. To fill this gap related to constrained contacts we propose a comprehensive approach for the planning of Power and force limiting in this paper. After giving an overview over existing testbeds for collision testing in human-robot-interaction, a new testbed setup is proposed as well as an approach to utilize the generated data to create benefits for end users of the tested robots. With this approach the collision-force and -pressure during a contact are estimated based on information that are available before the application is built up. An expert system gives advice to the user how to modify the application to meet design requirements and ensure operator safety. The proposed approach relies on an advanced testbed, which is able to reproduce representative contact situations between a human and a test-robot by varying the parameters: contact position and direction, velocity at the contact point, end-effector weight, collision surface and affected human body part. The testbed is implemented prototypically to investigate the feasibility of the approach. The biomechanical loads of reproduced contact situations are measured using a state-of-the-art biofidel measurement device and stored in a database, where they can be used to estimate the force and pressure of planned applications and create instructions to influence a desired application parameter.

Приватне життя Євгена Коновальця: кореляція особистого та політичного (1921–1930 рр.)

Introduction. The article examines private life of the famous Ukrainian politician, leader of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists Yevhen Konovalets in 1921–1930. Purpose. The purpose of the work is to cover the main features of Konovalets private life and its correlation with political activity during 1921–1930. Originality. Academic novelty and originality of work is due to the lack of a special study devoted to the details of the private life of Y. Konovalets in 1921–1930 in modern Ukrainian historiography. Methods. Framework methodology for research is the biographical method. Analysis of various groups of personal documents (memoirs, diaries, letters), which contain biographical information, allowed us to specify the details of the most important events in the private life of Y. Konovalets, which took place during 1921–1930. The use of prosopographic approach in the work allowed to outline the nature of interpersonal relations between Y. Konovalets and his wife O. Fedak. The research also used such special historical methods as: historical-chronological, historical-comparative and historical-systemic. Results. As part of the study, it was possible to dispose of the widespread thesis in historiography that Y. Konovalets returned to Lviv only in July of 1921. Separately, the features of Lviv household were detailed. Versions of Yevhen’s acquaintance with O. Fedak and their relations at the initial stage of relationship were outlined. Details of the wedding ceremony organization were revealed, which, despite the influence of the Lviv family of Fedak and the authority of Y. Konovalets among the Ukrainian community in Lviv, was modest. Some aspects of the Berlin period of the Konovalets family’s life were highlighted, in particular, the birth of a son and details of support in the situation of contacts with Galician relatives in that situation. The influence of the political factor on the private life of Y. Konovalets and the material, moral and psychological condition of his family members was clarified. Conclusion. The period of 1921–1930 became decisive in Y. Konovalets’ private life. His return to Lviv in 1921 allowed him to settle his personal life and start his own family. At the same time, commander’s private life was closely connected with his active pro-Ukrainian political activities, which significantly influenced the resolution of major personal and family issues.

A review on recent development and challenges in automotive brake pad-disc system

From a tribological prospect, the brake pad-disc system undergoes severe abrasive and adhesive wear mechanism in the production of wear debris. Because of the constant abrasion, this procedure produces fine particle debris, which certainly harm the environment. The conventional material for brake-discs is usually grey cast iron in the pearlite form with lamellar graphite phases. These materials are thermally conductive and have a high thermal capacity. It also has a high corrosive tendency and severe material wear throughout the service. According to studies, PM10 emissions (inhalable particles-particulate materials with dimensions of 10 µm or less) from disc brake wear can account for 50% of overall non-exhaust wear emissions from vehicle transport. The interplay between the friction pairs has the greatest impact on the braking performance of the diverse brake regimes. The friction material used in brakes has a considerable impact on the contact situation in the brake disc of a car. As a result, friction material qualities have a critical influence in brake performance, specifically at severe braking condition, in which the system temperature rises beyond critical value. The sensitivity of disc brakes to pressure, speed, and temperature in a braking phase is generally governed by the system ingredients and their quantity. Therefore, this research paper focusses on the analysis of the historical evolution of the brake pads, challenges and future prospective of the automotive brake-pad disc system.

The Use of Tameguchi and its Metamessages in First-Time Face-to-Face Contact Situations

The Use of <i>Tameguchi</i> and its Metamessages in First-Time Face-to-Face Contact Situations

Nemci u Vojvodini u periodu osnivanja Kraljevine SHS - interdisciplinarni pristup

In this paper, we conducted an interdisciplinary analysis of the process of integration of the German minority in the historical context of the first Yugoslav state, Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes (1918-1929). In 1920, Swabian-German Cultural Association, Kulturbund, was founded as an important factor in preserving the German identity. Even though Kulturbund had interruptions in its activity, in 1924 and 1929, it remained the basic frame for cultural life of the German community during the period between the two wars. Officially, this organization was founded as non-political and loyal to new state, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats, and Slovenes. The activities of Kulturbund were focused on preservation of German heritage through establishment of cultural institutions such as libraries and bookstores and through organization of cultural events in the area of literature, film, music, and theatre. Kulturbund was most active in Vojvodina. Vojvodina is still a unique model of co-existence of different ethnic groups and cultural patterns, and the German community historically contributed to multiculturalism, multi-confessionalism and multiethnicity of this region. We based our analyses on contributions in the field of sociology on ethnicity, cultural anthropology, and history. Specifically we found theoretical model of ethnical boundaries, established by Fredrik Barth within the interactional approach to exploring ethnicity, which proved to be useful. Barth's influential model allowed us to examine the ethnicity from very important aspect-social interaction. In that way, ethnicity is interpreted as a form of social organization of cultural differences. Also, this model implies that ethnical boundaries are flexible, but also resistant, and can be preserved in situations of intensive cultural contacts between different ethnical and cultural groups. According to Barth, the factors with the most influence to the strengthening of ethnical boundaries are social changes on the international level, such as wars.

Contact of Cultures and the Image of Japan in European Fiction (Frigate “Pallada” by I. Goncharov and The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by D. Mitchell)

This article studies the situation of contact between European and Japanese cultures and the image of Japan created in the classical work of Russian literature Frigate “Pallada” (1858) by I. Goncharov and in the novel The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet (2010) by David Mitchell, a contemporary British writer. The books were written during different periods of time, but they describe the same historical period and similar events; they both have documentary foundation. Special attention is paid to translators as characters of the books who play an important role in the plot development and provide intercultural communication. The research methodology combines methods of comparative literary criticism with a post-colonial approach, E. Said’s ideas about orientalism and ethnocentrism in particular. Comparative analysis of the two books demonstrates that the image of Japan created by the two writers has a number of similar features, which confirms its objective nature. Conversely, the authors’ perspectives and points of view of Japan differ drastically. The Russian writer looks at the Japanese down and from the outside; he considers “strangeness” and “childishness” to be their national features. Goncharov’s Eurocentric position is explained by several reasons: his knowledge of Japan was external, he was a civil servant, who cared mostly about the interests of Russia, and he represented an influential group of Eurocentric intelligentsia. D. Mitchell’s knowledge of Japan and its culture is deep and internal due to his biography. The English writer creates a bicultural novel in which the European and the Japanese worlds are equally significant. Thus, in the novel, the author offers a modern point of view on the world order and intercultural communication.

Linguistic Identity Embedded in Multilingual Landscape of Assam1

The north eastern parts of India which is commonly known as (the seven sisters) are seven hill states on the north-eastern frontiers of India. These states are Arunachal Pradesh, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Meghalaya and Assam. Northeast India has approximately over 250 ethnic groups and equal or probably a greater number of languages around 300. Most of these languages are mutually non-intelligible. These hill states host a wide range of diverse tribal societies with layered distinctions within the same tribal groups. Assam as one of these states has many languages spoken in the society. It has got many languages spoken in the North East. Assam has languages from major language families such as Tibeto-Burman, Indo-Aryan, and Austro-Asiatic, which converge out of contact situation and complex ways of maintaining social and linguistic identities. This paper attempts to understand almost 200 years of sustained movements amid various forms of linguistic identity and linguistic tensions in Assam. This paper deals with the linguistic identity of Assamese society and sustained conflicts with other linguistic groups, which finds an origin in the colonial history and multiple geographical reorganization of the present-day Assam. In doing so, this paper closely looks at the Assam Official Language Act 1960, consequent fall out of the Act and the recent questions of linguistic identity of minority groups in the multilingual landscape of Assam with specific reference to the Assamese Language Learning Act 2020.

Dynamic Simulation and Analysis of Engagement Process for Logarithmic Spiral Bevel Gear Based on Accurate 3D Model

Based on the accurate 3D model of logarithmic spiral bevel gear, the operation of spiral cone gear engagement is analyzed and simulated by ANSYS. Through the nonlinear static contact analysis of different positions, the stress change rule and the maximum contact stress is obtained. Compared with the theoretical contact stress strength rule, this paper also analyzes the dynamic operation situation of the gear pairs, obtains the dynamic contact situation rule at different engagement times and different rotating speeds, the influence of the rotating speed on the gear contact characteristics is compared too. The static, dynamic performance and change rules of the gear engagement is obtained, which lay a solid foundation for the further research, design and manufacture of spiral bevel gears.

Electrochemical modification of high contact stainless steel 304 surfaces for antimicrobial applications

High-contact or high-touch surfaces are usually associated with higher risk of microbial contamination and subsequent infection, especially during global pandemics. Previous studies have shown that changing the surface roughness or topography at the micro or even nano-scale to enrich antimicrobial properties on the high-contact surfaces has been widely considered. In this work, we have used electrochemical techniques to modify the surface of metals that are commonly used in high contact situations such as stainless steel 304 (SS304). The aim of this study was to systematically elucidate the optimal electrochemical parameters such as anodizing current density and electrolyte composition needed for different types of metals. Surface morphology and topography profiles were observed by scanning electron microscopy and atomic force microscopy. Fabricated surface nanostructures were studied to evaluate the effect it has on the antimicrobial properties. The colony forming units with Escherichia coli were investigated. The results indicated that SS304 anodized at 3.5 V for 20 mins resulted in the fabrication of nanostructures up to 556 nm in size and was the optimized candidate due to its highest surface roughness (Ra) of 262.28 nm and 52.6% reduction of bacterial adhesion after 24 h incubation.

Linguistic areas in the history of the Mansi language

The article is devoted to the reconstruction of historical contacts of the Mansi language with Samoyedic languages. On the modern linguistic map of Western Siberia these languages are not in direct contact, however, linguistic data make it possible to reconstruct several contact situations of varying degrees of temporal depth. I suppose that in the region of the Upper Ob there was a historical linguistic area, which included the Mansi, Selkup, and Kamas languages. In the eastern periphery of this zone, some limited contacts between the Selkups and the Kets took place. The Khanty language was widespread north of the Mansi language, possibly, in the northern periphery of this area. The ancestor of the modern Eastern Khanty language was located closest to the Mansi language. The Mansi contacted with the speakers of the Southern Samoyedic languages most probably across the rivers of Chizhapka and Parabel. Within the same area E. G. Bekker identifi ed the zone of distribution of the Kamas toponymy. During the period of these contacts, in my opinion, Kamas and Selkup were already two separate languages, but the dialectal diff erentiation of Selkup had not yet begun: the article proposes a number of Mansi-Selkup areal isoglosses, equally represented in all Selkup dialects. Subsequently, the relative position of the Khanty and Mansi languages on the linguistic map of Western Siberia changed. The Eastern Khanty penetrated the Upper Ob area. Then the Northern and Southern Khanty settled in a wide zone stretching from north to south along the course of the Middle Ob and Irtysh. This interrupts the connection between the Mansi and the Eastern Khanty and cuts off the Mansi from the Upper Ob area. During this period, the modern “Ostyak” area including the Selkup, Ket, and Khanty languages began to form in the Upper Ob region. The formation of this “Ostyak” area should be attributed to the period after the dialectal differentiation of the both mentioned Uralic languages: this area includes only the easternmost dialects of Khanty and only the Northern and Tym dialects of Selkup.

A Study of Two-Party and Three-Party Conversations of Japanese-Chinese First-Time Contact Situations: A Comparison of a Non-native Speaker’s Comprehension and Participation Based on Analysis of Topic Opening Utterances and Follow-Up Interviews

A Study of Two-Party and Three-Party Conversations of Japanese-Chinese First-Time Contact Situations: A Comparison of a Non-native Speaker’s Comprehension and Participation Based on Analysis of Topic Opening Utterances and Follow-Up Interviews

Maximal and explosive strength normative data for handgrip test according to gender: international standardization approach

PurposeIn daily living, hands are the basic organs for manipulative tasks of the human body, and they are specialized for various motor tasks with different physical object contact situations. Insufficient strength during aging constitutes a key component of sarcopenia and is associated with subsequent disability and mortality. The simplest and very valid test for assessing general strength is the handgrip test, and the need for international standards for grip strength seems very essential. The study aimed to set normative data for different handgrip strength dimensions in an international healthy adult community.MethodsThe maximal muscle force and maximal explosive muscle force for dominant and non-dominant hand were examined across 838 subjects from 11 countries. The result values were compared with the internationally published findings for external validation.ResultsThe mean value for both hands maximal strength in an adult male was 997 ± 176 N for the absolute and 11.78 ± 1.95 N/kg for the relative measure; in females, the respective values equalled 550 ± 110 N and 8.49 ± 1.79 N/kg. The mean value for maximal explosive strength in an adult male was 6473 ± 1420 N/s for the absolute and 76.47 ± 16.22 N/s/kg for the relative measure; in adult females, the respective values equalled 3506 ± 915 N/s and 54.13 ± 14.38 N/s/kg.ConclusionsThe normative reference values provided in this study may serve as an international guide for interpreting maximal and explosive handgrip strength measurements obtained from healthy adult individuals of both genders.

SOCIOLINGUISTIC REPRESENTATIONS REGARDING LINGUISTIC CHARCTERISTICS OF UKRAINIAN, RUSSIAN AND SURZHYK IN UKRAINIAN MEDIA DISCOURSE

This article examines the widespread social perception of the linguistic characteristics of Ukrainian, Russian languages and Surzhyk, which is commonly known as a mixed language of the two. The aim of this article is to establish a common interpretation of their forms and uses from a sociolinguistic perspective to clarify their perceived valuation in the situation of language contact. We rely especially on the theories of sociolinguistic representations and language majoration and minoration, elaborated in the French sociolinguistics, which allows us to have a clear view of the dynamic system within the multilingual communities. This study gives a detailed analysis of journalistic articles dedicated to language issues in Ukraine published on the internet, for gaining a broad and topical sets of data. Our results show that there exists a complex relation between the mixed language and the two languages, where on the one hand Surzhyk is interpretated to be constructed from the Ukrainian and Russian languages, while on the other hand, the illiterateness of its speakers is emphasized. Furthermore, we see that speaking Surzhyk could in fact be more negatively perceived than speaking Russian, since it has the potential to pose a threat to the existence of the Ukrainian language.

The Role of Prosody and Morphology in the Mapping of Information Structure onto Syntax

The mapping of information structure onto morphology or intonation varies greatly crosslinguistically. Agglutinative languages, like Inuktitut or Quechua, have a rich morphological layer onto which discourse-level features are mapped but a limited use of intonation. Instead, English or Spanish lack grammaticalized morphemes that convey discourse-level information but use intonation to a relatively large extent. We propose that the difference found in these two pairs of languages follows from a division of labor across language modules, such that two extreme values of the continuum of possible interactions across modules are available as well as combinations of morphological and intonational markers. At one extreme, in languages such as Inuktitut and Quechua, a rich set of morphemes with scope over constituents convey sentence-level and discourse-level distinctions, making the alignment of intonational patterns and information structure apparently redundant. At the other extreme, as in English and to some extent Spanish, a series of consistent alignments of PF and syntactic structure are required to distinguish sentence types and to determine the information value of a constituent. This results in a complementary distribution of morphology and intonation in these languages. In contact situations, overlap between patterns of module interaction are attested. Evidence from Quechua–Spanish and Inuktitut–English bilinguals supports a bidirectionality of crosslinguistic influence; intonational patterns emerge in non-intonational languages to distinguish sentence types, whereas morphemes or discourse particles emerge in intonational languages to mark discourse-level features.