Contrasting Perspectives Research Articles

ASSESSING LEARNERS’ ACADEMIC PHRASEOLOGY IN THE DIGITAL AGE: A CORPUS-INFORMED APPROACH TO ESP TEXTS

In the field of English for Specific Purposes (ESP), as in any other type of interlanguage, phraseology contributes significantly to successful academic writing (Biber and Barbieri 2007). For particular learner varieties, such as Romanian English, few studies have examined formulaic sequences (Hyland 2008), mainly focusing on lexico-grammatical patterns (Chitez 2012, 2014). The proposed paper investigates the use of phraseology in Romanian students’ academic papers, written during their ESP courses, by adopting a double contrastive perspective: first, we contrast texts produced in two different disciplines (Literature Studies and Information Technology), and, second, we compare the academic phraseology in learner language with native speaker phraseology. For the analysis, we have compiled two corpora (ESP-LIT and ESP-IT), each consisting of 40 texts representing a discipline specific didactic genre, e.g. essay. As reference, we used the Academic Phrasebank (Davis and Morley 2018). The aim is to find out whether the use of academic formulaic expressions differs according to the discipline and the extent to which students integrate expert academic phrases into their writing. The methodology can be replicated for different language learning settings.

THE FATE OF THE BULGARIAN WORD ДЕТО IN SLOVENE LITERARY TRANSLATIONS

The aim of the article is to determine and to analyse translation equivalents of the Bulgarian lexical item дето in Slovene translations of five Bulgarian novels. After the introductory overview of the uses of дето (with a contrastive Bulgarian-Slovene perspective) and the functional-semantic analysis of all the occurrences of дето (including само дето and освен дето) in the novels analysed, their Slovene translation counterparts were extracted and analysed functionally, semantically, as well as quantitatively. The most frequent function of дето in the analysed novels is that of the absolute relativizer, followed by дето as a causal and a locative conjunction, and a relativizer with a concessive meaning; дето is also a part of two complex conjunctions, with само дето indicating limitation-contrast or unfoundedness, and освен дето signalling limitation. In addition, дето is found in the parenthetical clause дето се казва ‘as the saying goes’. The translation equivalents show a higher diversity in comparison with the source text forms. Bulgarian дето, само дето and освен дето have – within separate functional-semantic categories – a broad array of functional-semantic, lexical and structural Slovene translation equivalents: pronouns (mainly relative), various conjunctions, omissions, modal particles, adverbs, and clauses. The analysis has shown that дето (with само дето and освен дето) does not have an analogous lexical counterpart in Slovene. Moreover, translators frequently depart from the semantic, syntactic and stylistic features of the source text.

Contrasting Perspectives on the Comfort and Safety of Pedestrians Interacting with Other Road Users

Assessments of interactions between road users are crucial to understanding comfort and safety. However, observers may vary in their perceptions and ratings of road user interactions. The objective of this paper is to examine how perceptions of yielding, comfort, and safety for pedestrian interactions vary among observers, ranging from members of the public to road safety experts. Video clips of pedestrian interactions with motor vehicles and bicycles were collected from 11 crosswalks and shown to three groups of participants (traffic safety experts, an engaged citizen advisory group, and members of the general public) along with questions about yielding, comfort, and risk of injury. Experts had similar views of yielding and comfort to the other two groups, but a consistently lower assessment of injury risk for pedestrians in the study. Respondent socio-demographics did not relate to perceptions of yielding, comfort, or risk, but self-reported travel habits did. Respondents who reported walking more frequently rated pedestrian comfort as lower, and respondents who reported cycling more frequently rated risk as lower for pedestrian interactions with both motor vehicles and bicycles. Findings suggest small groups of engaged citizens can provide useful information about public perspectives on safety that likely diverge from expert assessments of risk, and that sample representation should be assessed in relation to travel habits rather than socio-demographics.

Analysis of biochemistry students’ graphical reasoning using misconceptions constructivism and fine-grained constructivism: why assumptions about the nature and structure of knowledge matter for research and teaching

In this work, we discuss the importance of underlying theoretical assumptions in research, focusing on the conclusions reached when analyzing data from a misconceptions constructivist (stable, unitary) perspective in contrast to a fine-grained constructivist (resources, knowledge-in-pieces) perspective.

Abtönungspartikeln im Deutschunterricht für Niederländischsprachige

German modal particles (Abtönungspartikeln, Modalpartikeln) present a special challenge for learners of German as a second or foreign language because their meaning is difficult to describe in non-technical terms, but also because many learners’ first languages lack direct equivalents. While Dutch is in a privileged position in this respect due to its relative wealth of modal particles, Dutch-speaking learners of other languages are often unaware of the particles and their functions even in Dutch. The present paper shows how an awareness of modal particles can be raised in Dutch-speaking learners of other modern languages from a contrastive perspective, thus contributing to a more adequate use of such particles by the learners in German. Keywords: modal particles, German, Dutch, teaching, noticing

Patrimoine vs. dziedzictwo – interculturality in French language teaching

The subject of this paper is a corpus analysis of patrimoine in contrastive perspective with its Polish equivalent dziedzictwo within the framework of the intercultural approach in French language teaching. Its purpose will be to reveal the semantic differences and similarities of these two words in terms of the results provided by the frequency and collocation analysis based on the Polish National Corpus, the French Corpus Frantext and Corpora Collection of Leipzig University. The study showed that one of the strongest and most frequent collocations, indicated by different collocation measures, for both Polish and French, is cultural heritage (Fr. patrimoine culturel, Pl. dziedzictwo kulturowe). Typical Polish collocations are national heritage and Christian heritage, while in French these are patrimoine artistique et patrimoine touristique.

Мобильная занятость мобильного субъекта

Статья посвящена анализу трудовых траекторий мигрантов из Средней Азии, прибывших в российские мегаполисы с целью заработка. В исследовании седентаристская оптика сменяется мобильной, и трудовая активность гастарбайтеров интерпретируется через понятие мобильности. С этой целью введен концепт «мобильного субъекта», среди специфических черт которого подвижность, нестабильность, множественность жизненных проектов, жизнь в «сиюминутном» времени, автономизация и в то же время формирование широкой сети социальных контактов, отказ от интеграции. Исследование выполнено в рамках качественной методологии, основные методы – интервьюирование и наблюдение. В фокусе исследования около 30 кейсов. В тексте в качестве иллюстраций рассматриваются три кейса – жизненные истории мигрантов из Таджикистана и Кыргызстана. Исследование было лонгитюдным, в течение пяти лет каждые полгода мы встречались с информантами, что позволило проанализировать сложные биографические траектории людей, в частности, изменение их трудовых стратегий. В связи со структурными изменениями на новом месте жительства мигранты, как правило, занимают ниши низкоквалифицированного труда. Меняя национальные контексты, мобильный субъект зачастую начинает трудовую карьеру «с нуля», не подтверждая прежнюю квалификацию. Анализ биографий информантов демонстрирует нелинейность и изменчивость их трудовых траекторий. Согласно исследованию, гастарбайтеры работают в нескольких местах одновременно; реализуют себя в рамках разных профессиональных сфер; сочетают разные формы занятости; не привязаны к одному месту работы. Трудовые траектории мигрантов не представляют собой линейную карьеру как целенаправленное движение в рамках одной профессии или одной организации. Карьера мобильного субъекта экстенсивна – мигрант накапливает самые разнообразные опыты, меняя места работы и профессиональные сферы, сочетая разные формы занятости, что позволяет мигрантам быть мобильными, реактивно приспосабливаться к меняющемуся рынку труда и изменяющимся структурным условиям. Смена исследовательской оптики открывает новую перспективу в понимании мигрантского труда и позволяет увидеть в нем не только проблемы (прекарность, нестабильность, (само-)эксплуатацию и пр.), но и агентность в выборе трудовых стратегий.

Algunas consideraciones sobre el proceso de enseñanza de español a migrantes senegaleses en Buenos Aires

La migración senegalesa en Buenos Aires ha crecido considerablemente en los últimos años. Este trabajo se propone presentar una descripción general de la situación de la enseñanza de español a este colectivo migrante. Para ello, se analizan sus principales características migratorias, lingüísticas y educativas y se las relaciona con la experiencia en gestión curricular y docencia en dos escuelas de español, en las que se realiza una aproximación desde una perspectiva comunicativa y equilibrada entre oralidad, escritura y alfabetización. De este diagnóstico, se presenta la necesidad de la incorporación de una perspectiva contrastiva, que profundice sobre el conocimiento de la lengua materna de los aprendientes (wólof). Se ilustran los beneficios del criterio comparado a través del análisis de las transferencias positivas y negativas entre esta lengua y el español a través de la revisión de los primeros objetivos comunicativos de un nivel inicial.

The Phonology of Anglicisms in French, German and Czech: A Contrastive Approach

Abstract In this article, I analyse the phonological adaptation of Anglicisms in three languages (French, German and Czech) from a contrastive perspective. The classification of standard phonological forms, based on a system of eight adaptation principles, aims at capturing the degree of phonological permeability/resistance for each of the languages. Phonological approximation (the substitution of foreign phonemes with native ones) seems to be the fundamental principle in all three languages analysed. The spelling pronunciation principle is observed predominantly in French; phonological import occurs only in German. Globally, phonological resistance increases in the following order: German – Czech – French.

Extended Place-Invariant Control in Automated Manufacturing Systems Using Petri Nets

In supervisory control of Petri nets (PNs), the place-invariant ( <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -invariant) control principle is the most typical and principal method to deal with the siphon control problem. Although it has a relatively narrow application, this principle is widely acknowledged due to its simplicity and efficiency. In this article, we first propose the extended <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -invariant control principle in order to extend the application of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -invariants and provide a general methodology for the control of siphons. Second, three types of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -invariants, from the special to the general, are developed to implicitly or explicitly invariant control the siphons. In the most general case, the virtual <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -invariants are constructed in the PNs. Third, the extended principle is further applied to the supervisor simplification. In the paradigm of the extended principle, it presents the redundancy from a structural perspective in contrast to several typical methods, and shows the significant importance of structural analysis in PNs, especially the important role of <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -invariants. As a consequence, the extended <inline-formula xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink"> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$P$ </tex-math></inline-formula> -invariant control principle can be considered as the fundamental principle of siphon control as well as its supervisor simplification.

The Past Forms of Japanese Futsuugo and Javanese Ngoko Lugu: Contrastive Analysis in Sociolinguistics

This paper is based on studying the differences and similarities in the form, structure, and usage of past sentences futsuugo-ngoko lugu in Japanese and Javanese. The study combines a qualitative and sociolinguistically informed comparative method. The data were taken from different sources, namely Shin Suikodenand Jin (a Japanese novel and play respectively), Ketoprak Wiswakarman (a traditional Javanese play), and Panjebar Semangat (a Javanese magazine), and were then analyzed from a contrastive linguistic perspective. Theories on Japanese and Javanese descriptive sentences, namely those of Ishii,[1] Masuoka,[2] Poedjosoedarmo,[3] Sasangka,[4] and Wedhawati,[5] were used. Besides, Djadjasudarma and Citraresmana [6] descriptive-qualitative method, Sanada’s,[7] concept of Sociolinguistics, as well as Tarigan’s,[8] Ishiwata and Takahashi’s,[9] theories of contrastive linguistics were also consulted. The study aimed to describe the differences and similarities in the forms, structures, and usage of past sentences futsuugo-ngoko lugu in Japanese and Javanese based on the dialogues' data. The study concludes that the addressers and addressees' speech levels in the Japanese conversations are those of futsuugo and ngoko lugu, which are comparable in the Javanese.

Lithuanian and French Sounds: Comparative Analysis of Articulatory Features

Summary The aim of this article is to analyze the differences between Lithuanian and French sounds and to provide a general outlook of the Lithuanian articulatory phonetics mainly intended for French speakers. Such a comparative analysis is relevant because (a) there is no consistent equivalent between written and spoken language, even in Lithuanian, which has a relatively young written language, (b) the international phonetic alphabet does not always accurately reflect differences in pronunciation, (c) the contrastive perspective helps learners to focus on differences that could be unnoticed. Besides the articulatory aspects, the orthographic issues where the spoken form cannot be directly deduced from the written form by a simple relation from grapheme to sound but depends on the graphemic context (mainly related to some assimilation processes) are given a special attention. The questions that remain controversial between Lithuanian phoneticians (such as the retroflex status of the phonetic counterparts of &lt;š&gt; and &lt;ž&gt;) are also mentioned. The comparative analysis shows that the two systems exhibit significant differences: most sounds are not shared. Nevertheless, differences are often slight, so that it is more an issue of orthoepics. Attention should be paid to the differences in the duration and qualitative characteristics of long and short vowels and the relation of graphemes &lt;a, e, o, i&gt; to sounds. From the point of view of consonants, [], [r, rj], [x, ] are problematic, their pronunciation must be learned separately. The pronunciation of palatalized consonants as simple consonants, and not as clusters with [j] as the second element, is also challenging for French speakers.

‘Politeness Markers’ Revisited - A Contrastive Pragmatic Perspective

AbstractThis paper revisits the concept of ‘politeness marker’, by proposing the bottom-up and corpus-based model of ‘ritual frame indicating expressions’ (RFIEs). Our central argument is that, in certain linguacultures, the relationship between ‘politeness markers’ and politeness itself is significantly stronger than in others. Therefore, any theory which argues that there is a definite relationship between form and politeness - or totally rejects this relationship - is potentially problematic if it does not take a contrastive pragmatic perspective, simply because this relationship is subject to significant linguacultural variation. The contrastive pragmatic study of RFIEs also helps us to determine the relationship between forms and speech acts and, indirectly, politeness. As a case study, we examine in this paper one-word and more complex expressions which are commonly associated with the speech acts of request and apology, drawn from the typologically distant Chinese and English linguacultures.

Storytelling and retelling in Bulgarian: a contrastive perspective on the Bulgarian adaptation of MAIN

Bulgarian belongs to the South Slavic language group but exhibits specific linguistic features shared with the non-Slavic languages of the Balkan Sprachbund. In this paper, we discuss linguistic and cultural aspects relevant for the Bulgarian adaptation of the revisedEnglishversionof The Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (LITMUS-MAIN). We addresstypological properties of the verbal system pertaining to a differentiated aspectual system and to a paradigm of verbal forms for narratives grammaticalized as renarrative moodin Bulgarian. Further, we consider lexical, derivational and discourse cohesive means in contrast to the English markers of involvement and perspective takingin the MAIN stories.

English vis-à-vis Italian Aspectual Verb Constructions: The Case of Continuative Aspectualizers

This paper provides an initial analysis of continuative aspectualizers from a contrastive English-Italian perspective. The aim is to investigate the areas of overlap and contrast in terms of the lexico-syntactic behaviour and semantic scope of the main continuative verbs in the two languages, i.e., keep, continue, proceed, resume vs. (man)tenere, continuare, procedere, riprendere. The focus will also be on the identification of the cognitive factors that interact with the prototypical features of these predicates, licensing or blocking the constructions types that can embed them. Two primary mapping operations, namely metonymy and metaphor, will be observed to motivate the behaviour of continuative aspectualizers in transitive and intransitive constructions as well as in less common patterns, such as the middle, reflexive and resultative construction.

A cross-cultural study of figurative language in Museum Audio Descriptions. Implications for Translation

As the Translation Studies community moves forward in an increasingly networked globe, and the needs of the new market change, the range of interests of translation as a discipline broadens, new proposals are raised by the market stakeholders and new challenges are discussed in academia. The challenges discussed in this paper come from research on Audio Description (Diaz Cintas 2007) with particular reference to museum Audio Description (AD), an intersemiotic translation which pursues the aim of disseminating knowledge and helping social integration “by performing inclusive practices” (Jimenez Hurtado et al 2015). Starting from the assumption that the language used by the people performing the AD (the audio describers) is a special language shaped by the communicative needs of its users, this research focuses on issues of discursive representation, construction and mediation in English and Italian Audio Descriptions. While the existing literature has shed some light on this type of translation and its main features (i.e. verbal and adjectival constructions; see Neves 2012; Hurtado et al 2015), the area of analogies does not appear to have been investigated from a contrastive perspective. Thus, this paper seeks to address this gap by focusing on the use of analogies and claims that they should be considered as a creative strategy of intersemiotic translation.

A Contrastive Approach to the Types of Hedging Strategies Used in Norwegian and English Informal Spoken Conversations

Abstract Hedging strategies, i.e. downtoning expressions or expressions of tentativeness or possibility, are ubiquitous in most, if not all, languages. However, hedging is often realised differently across languages, making such strategies particularly interesting to study from a contrastive perspective. The primary aim of this study is to compare the types of hedging strategies employed in Norwegian and English informal spoken conversations by using recently compiled corpus data. To enable a cross-linguistic comparison, a probe was used, i.e. a search term was devised to find other, surrounding elements in the corpora, and thereby retrieve comparable speech situations in which hedging strategies were likely to occur. The probe was successful in retrieving hedging strategies, and these strategies were then described by using a combination of categories from existing classificatory frameworks. The analysis uncovered several significant differences in the types of hedging strategies used in the two languages.

The Use of Lexeme HEAD in English and Indonesian Compound Words: A Contrastive Analysis

Compounding is a common word-formation process in Bahasa Indonesia (BI) and English (EN) as it can be found in constructions of the words headline, headmaster, and kepala berita, kepala sekolah in BI, which are widely used by the speakers of the languages. This study scrutinizes the constructions and the senses of lexeme HEAD and KEPALA from contrastive linguistic perspective. It aims at describing (1) The constructions of compound words containing lexeme HEAD and (2) the extended senses of lexeme HEAD in the compound word constructions in BI and EN. The data, taken from Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia and Cambridge Online Dictionary, were collected and analyzed using contrastive analysis. The data were collected and analyzed through observation and close reading techniques. The discussion highlighted the similarities and differences of the constructions and extended senses of compound words containing lexeme HEAD. In BI, lexeme kepala is combined with nouns, adjectives, while in English lexeme HEAD is combined with nouns, adjectives, gerunds, and prepositions. In BI the extended senses of lexeme head refer to leader, hair, the most important, the tip of things, and personality, while there are six extended senses in EN, namely leader, hair, the most important part, the tip of things, personality, and movement. The extensions show human creativity to produce and comprehend metaphors and metonymy in context to express ideas that are abstract with something more familiar and concrete

El marcador del discurso del español peninsular claro y sus posibles traducciones en italiano

In the previous works we analyzed, in contrast to Italian, two abundant conversational discourse markers in European Spanish, hombre and bueno . Now we want to analyze, also in contrast to Italian, another common conversational discourse marker in European Spanish, claro , because we have observed that a very few number of studies have focused on it with a contrastive linguistic perspective. For this purpose, first we will make a brief summary of claro ’s main characteristics, then we will dedicate a few paragraphs to the treatment that this discourse marker received in some monolingual dictionaries and in other bilingual Italian-Spanish-Italian dictionaries. After that, we will recapitulate its main usage and value and, finally, we will discuss the translation solutions that we considered more appropriate in Italian, certainly the most interesting aspects of our work. Through them we will try to demonstrate that although at first sight claro tends to be almost automatically (and almost exclusively) translated as certo , which would imply the presence of few translation options compared with the translations of others conversational discourse markers as bien , hombre and bueno , on the other hand this discourse marker offers a wide range of translation solutions in the target language. This is the first of two works that we will dedicate to this subject. In our second article, which is in press, we will focus, always in contrast to Italian, on the combination between claro and others discourse markers of European Spanish. So far, there are not many pages that have been dedicated to this issue.

Il Modello di Basilea per l’analisi di también: uno studio contrastivo con l’italiano

L’obiettivo di questo studio consiste in un’analisi contrastiva della particella additiva dello spagnolo también e dei suoi possibili traducenti in italiano, con lo scopo di individuare i livelli di analisi più rilevanti in un’ottica contrastiva fra le due lingue. Lo studio è realizzato adottando una prospettiva funzionale e un approccio semasiologico. Inoltre, l’analisi si avvale di un modello di segmentazione pragmatica del testo: il Modello di Basilea (Ferrari et al. 2008), del quale studi precedenti (p. es., Borreguero 2014 e De Cesare / Borreguero 2014) hanno dimostrato la produttività in quanto strumento euristico capace di spiegare il comportamento testuale delle particelle polifunzionali, anche in un’ottica interlinguistica. Ad esempio, la saturazione del Quadro Informativo da parte di también attiva la funzione di connettivo testuale (vs. avverbio focalizzante) che, in un’ottica contrastiva con l’italiano, si traduce nella selezione di equivalenti diversi da anche. Infine, si focalizzerà l’attenzione su alcuni casi in cui l’ambiguità referenziale innescata dall’ampia mobilità distribuzionale di también deve essere necessariamente risolta per veicolare, nella traduzione, il medesimo insieme di elementi in gioco.