Contemporary Language Use Research Articles

Analysing A/O Possession in Māori-Language Tweets

This article contributes the first corpus-based study of possession in Māori, the indigenous language of Aotearoa New Zealand. Like most Polynesian languages, Māori has a dual possessive system involving a choice between the so-called A and O categories. While Māori grammars describe these categories in terms of the inherent semantic relationship between the possessum and possessor, there have been no large-scale corpus analyses demonstrating their use in natural contexts. Social media provide invaluable opportunities for such linguistic studies, capturing contemporary language use while alleviating the burden of gathering data through traditional means. We operationalise semantic distinctions to investigate possession in Māori-language tweets, focusing on the [possessum a/o possessor] construction (e.g., te tīmatanga o te wiki ‘the beginning of the week’). In our corpus comprising 2500 tweets produced by more than 200 individuals, we find that users leverage a wide array of noun types encompassing many different semantic relationships. We observe not only the expected predominance of the O category, but also a tendency for examples described by Māori grammars as A-marked to instead be O-marked (59%). Although the A category persists in the corpus, our findings suggest that language change could be underway. Our primary dataset can be explored interactively online.

Unveiling Namibia's Digital Humour

This article explored the humorous and stylistic elements of memes in Namibian online discourse. In the digital age, memes have become an integral part of online communication, offering valuable insights into contemporary language use. Today, memes are widely recognised as short videos or images accompanied by humorous texts, rapidly shared on social media. The incongruity theory of humour helps elucidate the humorous and language elements within memes. The study aimed at analysing selected memes within the Namibian socio-cultural context, shedding light on how language is used to create humorous effects and identifying stylistic qualities. The study employed a desktop methodology, analysing image macros from the Namibian socio-cultural context. 8 memes were sampled from an online platform called Namibian memes01 populated by 139 thousand followers at the time of sampling these memes. The study revealed that memes serve as a form of communication, conveying emotions, thoughts, ideas, and reflecting cultural values. They contribute to language development and have the potential to shape social interactions and shared beliefs. Humour plays a significant role in memes, fostering a sense of community, defusing tension, and promoting positive interactions. The findings highlight the importance of pragmatics and context in interpreting the intended meanings of memes.

‘He did not go back to the army’: war, patriotism and desertion in Pavel Pryazhko’s The Soldier

ABSTRACT Over the past twenty years, a collection of theatre makers in Russia have staged suppressed and marginalised voices to engage with the political and social realities of contemporary Russia. The work of these innovative theatre practitioners has been collated under the idiom of New Drama (Novaya Drama). Previous studies of New Drama have placed an emphasis on the role of the text and the playwright’s dynamic use of contemporary language. While acknowledging that these are important features of the New Drama repertoire, this article provides an alternative approach by examining the work of Pavel Pryazhko. This article explores Pryazhko’s The Soldier (Soldat, 2011), in the context of the Second Chechen War and Vladimir Putin’s revivification of the military in the public sphere. Through a detailed study of The Soldier in performance, this article contends that the production’s content and form is vital in generating an oppositional discourse about the role of the military in contemporary Russian society. Pryazhko’s eschewal of traditional notions of theatrical language and dialogic interaction in The Soldier disrupts the audience’s expectations of what a theatre performance is, and subsequently facilitates a wider dialogue about the Kremlin’s privileging of the military in Russia.

Nekaj naglasnomestnih značilnosti sodobne knjižne slovenščine

The article presents a wide range of issues related to accent position in contemporary standard Slovene. Some recorded problems of accent position and the methodology of determining modern language use are highlighted. Based on the results of an online survey, some modern tendencies of accent position in stressing adjectives ending in -cijski and -ovni and nouns ending in -ija and -on are also presented. The article also emphasizes the importance of researching real contemporary language use and observing the principle of linguistic system.

Discursive pragmatic approach to the third person pronoun ta in Chinese computermediated communication

This study examines the persuasive discourse of institutional accounts on Sina Weibo which contains the genderless non-standard third person pronoun ta written in the Roman alphabet instead of standard Chinese characters. Mandarin Chinese originally used the single character ? (ta) to refer to the third person ‘he', ‘she', and ‘it', which later gave way to three separate written ‘standard' forms: ta ? ‘he', ta ? ‘she', and ta ? ‘it' all with the same pronunciation. From a discourse analysis perspective, the study incorporates the ‘three-move structure' textual analysis methodology to shed light on both contemporary language use and one of the most under-studied interpersonal dialogic practices in Chinese computer-mediated communication: ta. The research shows that the environments in which ta appears are associated with two main goals: (1) generating monetary profit and (2) generating engagement with services/ideologies.

Linguistic Borrowing and Translanguaging in Multicultural Obollo Speech Community, Southeastern Nigeria

Historically, the influx of people with different cultural and linguistic backgrounds (e.g., Onitsha, Hausa, Yoruba, and Idoma) in Nigeria to Obollo from 1970s onward led to language contact and its consequences on an unprecedented scale. The influx of people needs sociolinguistic awareness as they develop a complex mosaic of multiple communicative competences. In addition, the mass movement of people associated with globalization, business transactions, high rate of mobility of people, and their linguistic repertoire entails new sociolinguistic configuration of a type not previously experienced. This study therefore explores linguistic borrowing and translanguaging in the superdiverse Obollo region using translanguaging and linguistic borrowing theory. Data from Obollo through semi-unstructured oral interview and participial observation were analyzed descriptively. The article identifies core and cultural borrowing, code-meshing, and translanguaging. The study contributes to translanguaging and linguistic borrowing literature and provides relevant information for education and research into contemporary language use in multilingual contexts.

International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies ed. by David G. Hebert

Reviewed by: International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies ed. by David G. Hebert Hansol Woo (bio) and Gerald LeTendre (bio) International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies, edited by David G. Hebert. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. 347 pages. $119.00 hardcover, $89.00 eBook. This book attempts to provide a new perspective on East Asian societies in a globalized world. In line with works like Okano and Sugimoto (2018), chapters in this book confront the problem of applying social theory derived in the “West.” The authors also attempt to move beyond national society perspectives to provide a contextualized view of East Asian society by including chapters on Korea and Japan. The authors examine a wide range of topics centered on language and culture, with a focus on issues of translation, language research, and language education. The inclusion of such diverse topics is thought-provoking, but the various sections of the book are not well integrated. The volume consists of twenty-one chapters divided into six sections. The first section on cultural change and the final chapter attempt to integrate this diverse collection but otherwise there is little that holds the book together. For example, chapter 2 provides a “deep dive” into how the word “shizen” has come to be the standard translation for both “environment” and “wilderness,” but no connections are made with chapter 4, which analyzes how a popular novel on pollution translated obscure scientific discourse into “ . . . a language that was accessible to the general reader . . . ” in Japan. The issues of “cultural translation” in Part I, would ideally inform the major issues of translation in literature which is the focus of Part II. Instead, chapter 5 moves on to describe the characteristics of Western languages in Japanese novels, and the last chapter of this section explains the emotional discourse analysis methods by analyzing Japanese literature. Part III focuses on key linguistic features of Korean and Japanese. These chapters identify the varying levels of definiteness in the use of articles and plural forms in Korean and Japanese, as well the influence of local dialectics on contemporary language use. Part IV presents a couple of [End Page 157] cases of language education in Japan. Chapter 11 examines the theory and practice of Japanese language education, focusing on the use of the modal verb, while chapter 12 analyzes the common mistakes of Swedish learners attempting to master Japanese. All interesting studies, to be sure, but the reader is left craving a synthesis that would unpack the potential insights that such a diverse assemblage of scholarship must hold. Part Vexplores the use of language in the professions using specific examples from contemporary Japanese law, Japanese trials, and urban planning in Korea. Finally, Part VI concludes with chapters as diverse as essays on learning the shakuhachi, and the aesthetics of the image of “spring rain” in haiku. The range of scholarship in this book is impressive. Each chapter presents a narrow scope of study and attempts to substantiate its conclusions based on empirical evidence. Some of the chapters are under-researched (e.g., the chapter on changing images of masculinity fails to cite major works on gender identity like a study by Borovoy (2005), but there is plenty of creative scholarship on display). For example, Barbara Hartley illustrates the issues and challenges to translation raised by Ariyoshi Sawako’s novel, Fukugô osen (Compound Pollution). While the translated book had a significant impact on environmental problems in Japan, the book suffered harsh criticism from some environmental scientists. Such harsh reception as seen in this case shows a specific dilemma of language transition in the field of science and encourages us to understand its challenges better. Such chapters echo the broader theme that language and translation are a font of innovation in East Asian society. This is a provocative idea, and the book does identify some tantalizing evidence. David G. Herbert, the editor, attempts to integrate these ideas into a new perspective on East Asian countries (although the synthesis does not include China, Taiwan, Singapore, and North Korea). This work goes beyond traditional, geographical, and demographic characteristics, to examine the effects of global interchange...

Osservazioni sul genitivo nelle Argonautiche di Apollonio Rodio

1. A Hellenistic text in Hellenistic Greek The language of Apollonius Rhodius’ Argonautica may be characterized as both conservative, keeping to the model of epic, mostly Homeric, language use, and as innovative both in terms of the choice, readjustment and further development of features of the epic language and of the occurrence of non-epic features either reflecting different literary genres (such as tragedy) and / or contemporary language use. Within this complex situation of imitation, v...

International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies, ed. by David G. Herbert

Book Review International Perspectives on Translation, Education and Innovation in Japanese and Korean Societies, edited by David G. Hebert. Springer International Publishing AG, 2018. 347 pages. $119.00 hardcover, $89.00 eBook. This book attempts to provide a new perspective on East Asian societies in a globalized world. In line with works like Okano and Sugimoto (2018), chapters in this book confront the problem of applying social theory derived in the “West.” The authors also attempt to move beyond national society perspectives to provide a contextualized view of East Asian society by including chapters on Korea and Japan. The authors examine a wide range of topics centered on language and culture, with a focus on issues of translation, language research, and language education. The inclusion of such diverse topics is thought-provoking, but the various sections of the book are not well integrated. The volume consists of twenty-one chapters divided into six sections. The first section on cultural change and the final chapter attempt to integrate this diverse collection but otherwise there is little that holds the book together. For example, chapter 2 provides a “deep dive” into how the word “shizen” has come to be the standard translation for both “environment” and “wilderness,” but no connections are made with chapter 4, which analyzes how a popular novel on pollution translated Korean Studies © 2019 by University of Hawai‘i Press. All rights reserved. 1 obscure scientific discourse into “ . . . a language that was accessible to the general reader . . . ” in Japan. The issues of “cultural translation” in Part I, would ideally inform the major issues of translation in literature which is the focus of Part II. Instead, chapter 5 moves on to describe the characteristics of Western languages in Japanese novels, and the last chapter of this section explains the emotional discourse analysis methods by analyzing Japanese literature. Part III focuses on key linguistic features of Korean and Japanese. These chapters identify the varying levels of definiteness in the use of articles and plural forms in Korean and Japanese, as well the influence of local dialectics on contemporary language use. Part IV presents a couple of cases of language education in Japan. Chapter 11 examines the theory and practice of Japanese language education, focusing on the use of the modal verb, while chapter 12 analyzes the common mistakes of Swedish learners attempting to master Japanese. All interesting studies, to be sure, but the reader is left craving a synthesis that would unpack the potential insights that suchadiverseassemblageofscholarshipmusthold.PartVexplorestheuseof language in the professions using specific examples from contemporary Japanese law, Japanese trials, and urban planning in Korea. Finally, Part VI concludes with chapters as diverse as essays on learning the shakuhachi, and the aesthetics of the image of “spring rain” in haiku. The range of scholarship in this book is impressive. Each chapter presents a narrow scope of study and attempts to substantiate its conclusions based on empirical evidence. Some of the chapters are underresearched (e.g., the chapter on changing images of masculinity fails to cite major works on gender identity like a study by Borovoy (2005), but there is plenty of creative scholarship on display). For example, Barbara Hartley illustrates the issues and challenges to translation raised by Ariyoshi Sawako’s novel, Fukugô osen (Compound Pollution). While the translated book had a significant impact on environmental problems in Japan, the book suffered harsh criticism from some environmental scientists. Such harsh reception as seen in this case shows a specific dilemma of language transition in the field of science and encourages us to understand its challenges better. Such chapters echo the broader theme that language and translation are a font of innovation in East Asian society. This is a provocative idea, and the book does identify some tantalizing evidence. David G. Herbert, the editor, attempts to integrate these ideas into a new perspective on East Asian countries (although the synthesis does not include China, Taiwan, Singapore, and North Korea). This work goes beyond traditional, 2 Korean Studies 2019 geographical, and demographic characteristics, to examine the effects of global interchange in science, literature, music, and the politics and policies of the countries described. In the global...

Provincia di Belluno. Tracce di contemporaneità / Province of Belluno. Traces of contemporaneity

The Province of Belluno is home of great human and landscape quality and of the beautiful Dolomites, UNESCO World Heritage. How experiences of contemporary architecture fit and how are promoted in this context? It can be said that contemporary architecture does not attract a big audience. This is despite the constant efforts by various bodies and associations to promote its diffusion and development through competitions, conferences, workshops and case studies. In the Belluno region, apart from the extraordinary extant historical heritage, there are widespread examples of new architecture known as “false alpine models” or architecture that has erroneously become typical of the Province’s image. This is the reason why this new architecture with its range of peculiarities is widely reiterated, from north to south of the area. Even though buildings of this type lack any real ties with history or tradition, they find widespread approval by institutions and commissions. They are the result of repetitive practices deriving from constraints imposed by local regulations and a limited aptitude in the use of contemporary language of architecture. Even if the barometer of the vitality of contemporary architecture in the region of Belluno is rather lukewarm, dampened by cultural resistance and by regulatory constraints affecting its growth and diffusion, there is no lack of experiences, initiatives and achievements. The latter is evidence of the fact that where research and the use of contemporary languages are accompanied by the opinions of enlightened patrons, good architecture is born, which find space in the arena of national and international architectural debate. Examples of good architecture, even though limited in number, are distributed across the Province and constitute heritage and the focus for promoting and consolidating the growth and dissemination of contemporary architecture throughout the area.

Innovative conversions in South-East Asian Englishes

Singapore English and Hong Kong English started out as contact varieties and developed into ESL varieties belonging to the Outer Circle (Kachru 1985). Both varieties show a similar contact ecology (Chinese), but differ in their socio-institutional status in the Dynamic Model (Schneider 2003, 2007). By analyzing innovative verb-to-noun conversion in these two varieties, and comparing them to British English, this study shows that despite the obvious similarities in substratum, the usage frequency of conversion in both varieties differs considerably. These findings, similar to — most recently — Deshors (2014) and Gilquin (2015), call into question the established notion of ESL in general and the status of SgE and HKE as ESL varieties in particular. In order to accurately reflect contemporary language use, it is reasonable to conceptualize the notion of ESL as a continuum and to situate HKE and SgE at opposite ends.

From the Medieval ḫarğāt to Contemporary Songs: Patterns of Codeswitching Involving Arabic1

Abstract This paper seeks to use evidence from contemporary language use to shed light on that of an earlier period. It examines a set of ḫarğāt, the closing sections of medieval Andalusian muwaššaḥ poems, which exhibit codeswitching between colloquial Andalusian Arabic and Romance, and compares the patterns of switching seen there with those used in some contemporary popular songs, in particular the Arabic-French switching used in the rai lyrics of North Africa. On the basis of the parallels and contrasts observed, some remarks are made about what the language of these ḫarğāt suggests about their origins and authors.

ОБРАДА ВИШЕЗНАЧНОГ ГЛАГОЛА <em>ГЛЕДАТИ</em> У ШЕСТОТОМНОМ И ЈЕДНОТОМНОМ РЕЧНИКУ МАТИЦЕ СРПСКЕ

У овом раду разматрају се примењене лексикографске стратегије при обради вишезначних лексема у вишетомном и једнотомном Речнику Матице српске. Обрада полисемије се анализира кроз три аспекта лексикографске праксе: идентификацију и диференцијацију значења, структуру и организацију речничког чланка и илустрацију контекста у којем се посматрана значења јављају. Анализирана је одредница глагола гледати одабраног због своје богате полисемантичке структуре засноване на деловању различитих механизама деривације значења. Циљ овог истраживања јесте утврђивање предности и недостатака система обраде полисемије у посматраним речницима, као и сличности и разлика између два система с обзиром да постоји известан временски јаз између вишетомног и једнотомног издања речника, те се може проверити потенцијални напредак и осавремењивање лексикографске праксе. Резултати анализе омогућавају селекцију лексикографских стратегија које су у складу са лексиколошком теоријом, али и ефикасне у смислу прегледног и систематичног представљања полисемантичке структуре у оквиру речничког чланка, што се може и илустровати формирањем предлога за одредницу посматраног глагола.

Mercado e discurso religioso na modernidade líquida

The form of ownership of the for goods of salvation (as Bourdieu) aims, through different media, using the religious content to conquer the emotional involvement and participation of the faithful. This is which combines the commercialization of the sacred and the use of contemporary language, and its place in a market of symbolic goods. We also believe that the representations of religious discourse inserted into fluid modernity (second conceptualization of Bauman) is developed by private roads, linking authoritarianism and polissemy.

Sweet talking: Food, language, and democracy

At a time of diminishing resources, the sum of apparently minor personal decisions about food can have immense impact. These individual choices are heavily influenced by language, as those with vested interests seek to persuade individuals to act in certain ways. This makes the language of food politics a fitting area for an expanding applied linguistics oriented towards real-world language-related problems of global and social importance. The paper draws upon five consecutive research projects to show how applied linguistics research may contribute to public policy and debate, and also how, by entering such new arenas, it can develop its own methods and understanding of contemporary language use.

Swedish: A comprehensive grammar (review)

Reviewed by: Swedish: A comprehensive grammarby Philip Holmes and Ian Hinchliffe Katrin Hiietam Swedish: A comprehensive grammar. 2ndedn. By Philip Holmes and Ian Hinchliffe. London: Routledge, 2003. Pp. xii, 614. ISBN 0415278848. $48.95. This book is an excellent overview of the contemporary language aimed at nonnative learners of Swedish. Since both of the authors are English-speaking, the book is intended primarily for those learners of Swedish whose first language is English; there are plenty of examples and parallels drawn between these two languages. The data used in this book is a mix of especially constructed and adapted naturally occuring examples that have been verified by native speakers. Several examples from the first edition have been changed in order to simplify the argumentation and avoid repetition. In their approach, the authors have tried to retain traditional linguistic terminology and structure as much as possible and pair it with actual contemporary language use. The result is a good account of standard up-to-date Swedish. In addition to the changes in examples, the second edition differs from the first in several ways. First, the numbering is different; second, there is an additional chapter on word formation (Ch. 11). Third, two chapters on nouns and nouns with articles have been merged to form an overview chapter on nouns (Ch. 1), and the noun declension classification in Ch. 1 has been revised to tie in with the 1999 grammar by the Swedish Academy. Finally, Ch. 10 includes an additional section on phrases. In what follows, each chapter is summarized individually. The first nine chapters deal with major and minor categories. Ch. 1 focuses on nouns, gender rules, plurals, and genitive forms, but also on forms for indefinite and definite articles and their use. Ch. 2 discusses the form and order of adjectives, the indefinite [End Page 461]and definite declension, and comparison of adjectives. Ch. 3 gives an overview of different types of pronouns, such as subject and object pronouns, reflexives, emphatics, possessives, demonstratives, determinatives, indefinites, interrogatives, and relatives. Ch. 4 shows how cardinal and ordinal numerals and fractions are used, and how to express dates and time. Ch. 5 outlines the forms of verbs with attention to tenses, modality, transitivity, and reflexivity, morphological and periphrastic passive forms, and compound formations. Ch. 6 discusses the form and function of adverbs, and sets location apart from movement, while Ch. 7 outlines the use of simple and compound prepositions. Coordinating and subordinating conjunctions and other coordinators are discussed in Ch. 8, and Ch. 9 focuses on interjections. Ch. 10 moves on to sentence structure and word order. The authors first divide sentences into identifiable units and discuss phrases, and then they consider word order in main and subordinate clauses. Following that is a section concentrating on order within positions, main clause transformations, and subordinate clauses, and ending with brief accounts of prominence and ellipsis. In Ch. 11 the authors turns to word-formation processes, such as affixation, compounding, expressive formation, and abbreviation, but they also include a section on foreign influences on Swedish and conversion. Finally, Ch. 12 outlines the symbols and sounds of Swedish, and its orthographic rules (spelling and use of small and capital letters), and Ch. 13 concludes with notes on punctuation. The book is also equipped with a glossary of linguistic terms used, a short bibliography on Swedish and English grammar, and a helpful index of English key words and Swedish examples. Katrin Hiietam Manchester, United Kingdom Copyright © 2007 Linguistic Society of America

Ann Fisher, descriptive or prescriptive grammarian? pp. 183–203.

The dichotomy of prescriptive vs. descriptive grammar has been long applied to eighteenth-century English grammars. In fact, only a few grammars are considered descriptive, among which Priestley’s is the most representative. Some modern scholars have criticized eighteenth-century English prescriptive grammars, mainly because they did not show contemporary language use, but conveyed a mixture of seventeenth-century English and the authors’ own interpretation of the language. Their main task was to impose language rules, even inventing them if necessary. However, doubts have recently been raised on the inflexibility of this prescriptive/descriptive dichotomy. For instance, Vorlat (1998: 285-286) proposes three categories for sixteenth- and seventeenth-century grammars that may well apply to eighteenth-century grammars: (i) descriptive registration of language, (ii) normative grammar, and (iii) prescriptive grammar. Tieken-Boon van Ostade (2000b) has also shown that Lowth’s text, practically an emblem of prescriptive grammar, also includes contemporary English usage. It is thus not unreasonable to hypothesize a continuum along which eighteenth-century grammars move, being more or less descriptive or prescriptive, a hybrid of both tendencies. The aim of this study is to exemplify this continuum through the analysis of Ann Fisher’s A New Grammar, with Exercises of bad English (1754).