Diaphasic Variation Research Articles

Translating Non-standard Language

Andrea Camilleri has gained significant success in the last decades with his works written in a special language: by creating a language similar to Sicilian dialect but understandable to other Italian speakers he heavily involved his Sicilian cultural heritage as well and brought it closer not only to an Italian, but a worldwide audience. How are this idiolect and the cultural elements translatable into other languages? There are various approaches, as shown in Quaderni camilleriani 3, and the techniques depend greatly on the target language. In Camilleri’s novels, not only the aforementioned diatopic, but also diastratic and diaphasic variation are characteristic, which is another factor the translator has to take into consideration. In this paper I would like to examine the translator’s choices in Hungarian regarding this multilingualism. Currently there are seven volumes available in Hungary, four of them translated by Margit Lukácsi, one by Noémi Kovács and Kornél Zaránd, and the last two by Ádám András Kürthy. The paper is also a parallel work to Giulia Magazzù’s, which aims to examine the translations in English of three novels, two of which are in common with this paper: Il cane di terracotta and La forma dell’acqua.

Address pronouns in a diasystematic perspective

Our paper concerns different strategies of communication with respect to formality and politeness, and how these differences relate to the diasystematic dimensions. Our contrastive approach involves forms of address in French and Italian compared to Danish, German, and English norms and usage. Both Romance and Germanic languages have two systems of address pronouns with different levels of formality. There are, however, significant differences in usages in the respective languages, both typological and interlinguistic. Different language areas have different conventions for communication and politeness, and we believe that address forms reflect such socio-cultural differences. Our analyses of these differences are anchored in the diasystematic dimensions as proposed by Eugenio Coseriu, with special focus on the diaphasic variation and its intertwinement with diastratically conditioned factors.

The Diasystematic Status of the Diatopic Axis

This paper is anchored in the tradition of variationist linguistics of Germanic and Romance studies in Europe. In variationist linguistics, the dimension of ‘space’ is essential. According to Flydal (1952:245) this dimension is one of the “extrastructuralismes” which, together with the structures of language, forms the “architecture de langue”. The other important extrastructural dimension mentioned by Flydal is diastratic, i.e. social variation. Coseriu takes over these two notions from Flydal, adding a third dimension: the diaphasic variation (1969:148 ss.). A fourth dimension proposed by Koch & Oesterreicher (1990), opposing the spoken vs written conception, implying the distinction between communicative immediacy or distance (the diamesic variation), was, however, not included by Coseriu. A number of publications and articles have recently questioned the theoretical basis of the three or four dimensions taken over from Flydal by Coseriu and further elaborated in the tradition of variationist linguistics in Romance and Germanic studies. My contribution focuses on the diatopic level, but intends to show, by means of a number of case studies, that this level cannot be considered independently of other variation factors.

Sind Sie noch bei der Arbeit oder schon am Arbeiten? Regionale Spielarten von Progressivität im Deutschen

Progressivity in German can be expressed not only by lexical means but also by various periphrastic structures, e. g. the am-periphrasis, the prepositions bei and in combined with nominalized infinitives or the periphrastic infinitival construction with the auxiliary verb tun. However, the use of these structures can vary considerably from region to region, especially in oral communication, often also in connection with significant diastratic, diaphasic and diamesic variation. This paper investigates native speaker judgments of different progressive markers in German (i. e. am-periphrasis, beim- and im-periphrases as well as tun-periphrasis) regarding their acceptability, use, familiarity and distribution in a particular geographical area or social group. The present study essentially focuses on regional differences between three distinct dialectal regions of the German-speaking area (Middle Bavarian, South Bavarian and Rhenish-Westphalian). Results indicate a tendency towards successive advancement of the am-peri-phrasis, even though the actual usage of this specific progressive construction still shows clear diatopic and diaphasic variation.

An Emergent Apprehensional Epistemic Adverbial in Spanish

AbstractThe topic of this paper is an emergent Spanish adverbial,a lo peor, formed by analogy witha lo mejorʻmaybeʼ. This novel adverbial constitutes an instance of an apprehensional epistemic (Lichtenberk, Frantisek. 1995. Apprehensional epistemics. In Joan Bybee & Suzanne Fleischman (eds.),Modality in grammar and discourse, 293–327. Amsterdam: John Benjamins); that is, it expresses epistemic possibility together with a negative attitude towards the hypothetical state-of-affairs. We discuss its status as an emergent construction and develop a corpus-based descriptive approximation that extends previous notes on the adverbial by considering patterns of usage and aspects of syntax, as well as observations about diatopic and diaphasic variation. We further discuss the motivation for the coinage ofa lo peoras well as the exact process of analogy formation, applying both a language-internal perspective and a cross-linguistic one. Lastly, we compare our findings ona lopeor to typological observations on the functions and evolution of apprehensional epistemics.

I linguaggi specialistici in Habemus Papam (2011). Analisi dei sottotitoli rovesciati in spagnolo e tedesco con incursioni nel doppiaggio

Habemus papam (2011) by Nanni Moretti, a well-known auteur film, is a multilingual movie that allows an analysis of different linguistic subcodes: from religious to psychoanalytic language, from medical to theatrical discourse, from the lexicon of card games to the language of sport. Specifically, the essay examines the Italian original dialogues and then focuses on the results of the study carried out on the Spanish and German interlingual subtitles (reversed subtitling) in three selected scenes in which special languages (in particular psychoanalytic, medical and card game discourse) play a key role in characters’ description. The research highlights some difficulties encountered by audiovisual translators who resorted to differing solutions both in the subtitles and in significant passages of dubbing in the two target languages. The study aims at identifying the translation trends of language variation, in particular as far as diaphasic variation is concerned.

Análisis sociolingüístico de la publicidad

This research analyzes the sociolinguistics adequacy in advertisements. The analysis aims to observe how far advertising reects the covariation phenomena manifested in the different linguistic levels from the conjunction of certains social and contextual variables. The research aims, somehow, to make it clear that sociolinguistics adequacy in ads can increase the effectiveness of advertising communication. We present a qualitative study of a corpus formed by a total of 60 television commercials, selected taking into consideration age and gender of the speaker as the product or service publicized. On the basis of the results obtained, advertising communication reflects both the genderlect and agelect variation. Also, we have observed dierences in style and therefore advertising includes the diaphasic variation. However, we perceive the transmission of sociolinguistic stereotypes that encourage creation and difussion of certain sociocultural roles.

Clitic Climbing, the Raising-Control Dichotomy and Diaphasic Variation in Croatian

In the paper, we discuss the phenomenon of clitic climbing (CC) out of infinitive complements in contemporary Croatian. Based on the first theoretical work and some empirical findings on CC in Czech and Bosnian, Croatian and Serbian (BCS) and the observation that differences in CC linked to register have been reported for some languages, we elaborate on the claim that CC varies in respect of both register and the Raising-Control Dichotomy. The following research questions are addressed: Does clitic climbing out of the single infinitive in Croatian depend on the type of complement-taking predicate (CTP) with respect to the Raising-Control Distinction? Does CC appear with equal frequency in standard and colloquial Croatian if the type of CTP verb (Raising vs Control) as a variable remains constant? Our study is based on data for two types of complement-taking predicates: a) Raising (8 different verbs) and b) Subject Control (8 non-reflexive + 8 reflexive verbs). The data was extracted from the Forum subcorpus of hrWaC v2.2 and from the Croatian Language Repository and Croatian National Corpus. Our data suggest that not only the Raising-Control Dichotomy, but also diaphasic variation have an impact on CC from infinitive complements.

Evidential Markers Derived from Visual Perception in Spanish Dialects: A Contrastive Study ofpor lo vistoandse ve (que)

Verbs of perception (PV) are known to frequently give rise to discursive uses. PVs are used, for example, as evidential markers through grammaticalization processes. This study focuses on two evidential markers of Spanish derived from the visual PVs ver ('to see'), namely, 'por lo visto' and 'se ve (que)'. Although the attention dedicated to these evidential markers in Spanish has increased considerably in recent years, contrastive studies have not taken into account the dialectal variation of this phenomenon. We aspire to take a first step in filling this gap by contrastively studying 'por lo visto' and 'se ve (que)' in different dialects of Spanish by means of a comprehensive, empirical study. The results display the distribution of 'por lo visto' and 'se ve (que)' in the dialectal map of Spanish. In addition to the diatopic variation, the frequency differences also reveal some significant diaphasic variation (in this case linked to discursive genre). In general, the results show that 'se ve (que)' is used more frequently and appears more often in informal registers than 'por lo visto'. Likewise, 'se ve (que)' turns out to be more widespread geographically than 'por lo visto'.

Para a compilação do C-ORAL-ANGOLA

O trabalho apresenta a arquitetura e os critérios de compilação de um corpus de fala espontânea do português angolano. Após uma breve contextualização da realidade linguística de Angola, são apresentados em detalhe as modalidades de gravação e o tratamento das diferentes variações sociolinguísticas documentadas, destacando-se a atenção à variação diafásica. Em seguida, são detalhados os primeiros 27 textos gravados, que formarão um minicorpus de pelo menos 30.000 palavras, segmentado prosodicamente e oferecendo o texto alinhado ao sinal sonoro. A última parte do artigo é dedicada à discussão dos passos metodológicos da compilação do corpus: definição da qualidade acústica, critérios de transcrição, procedimento de segmentação prosódica, revisão, alinhamento e validação estatística.

Style-shifting and accommodative competence in Late Middle English written correspondence: Putting Audience Design to the test of time

AbstractStyle constitutes an essential component for the non-referential indexicality of speakers’ sociolinguistic behaviour in interpersonal communication. Historical Sociolinguistics applies tenets and findings of present-day research to the interpretation of linguistic material from the past, but without giving intra-speaker variation the same relevance as to inter-speaker variation. The aim of this paper is to show results obtained from the investigation of style-shifting processes in late medieval England by applying contemporary models of Audience Design to diaphasic variation from historical corpora of written correspondence. The study is carried out through the analysis of the use of the orthographic variable (TH) by male members of the Paston family from thePaston Letterscorpus when addressing recipients from different social ranks. The data show both addressee and referee-based accommodation patterns in the communicative practice of medieval individuals. In addition to tracing language variation and change in speech communities, private letters may also shed light onto the motivations and mechanisms for intra-speaker variation in individuals and their stylistic choices in past societies.

Fundamental Problems of the Ethnography of Communication and Public Speech of the Albanian Language of Nowadays

The article tackles some fundamental problems of the ethnography of communication and public speech of nowadays Albanian, the directions and the main tendencies of contemporary developments and the influences from English and other foreign languages in the frame of globalization. Language has not been and it is not a monolith block: it has its layers and its distinctions in both the vertical line and the horizontal line as well. The vertical stratification (or diastratic) belongs to the variables that are connected with the social stratification, whereas the horizontal stratification (or diatopic) belongs to the dialectal and regional distinctions. These dimensions of linguistic variety are often interlaced with two additional ones: the degree of formality, which belongs to the manner and control that is exercised when spoken (diaphasic variation) and the variations that depend on the means used to communicate: written forms, by means of electronic post (e-mail), telephone, orally etc. (diamesic variation). DOI: 10.5901/ajis.2015.v4n2s2p157

Varietà del repertorio della comunità linguistica italiana e l’insegnamento dell’italiano a livelli avanzati

This paper is devoted to the problems of teaching Italian language at an advanced level in the context of the internal diversification of Italian language: diatopic variation, diastratic variation, diamesic variation, diaphasic variation. In the process of language acquisition the so called Variation Awareness plays a vital role. It allows the learner – aided by the teacher – to attain communicative competence in the broad sense of its meaning. In case of teaching at an advanced level, the emphasis must be put not only on the grammatical correctness, but also, and mainly, on the ability to properly relate the message to the context it appears in, moreover, the kind of message – oral or written – must be taken into account. In relation to the linguistic situation in contemporary Italy, it is also important to draw the attention of a learner to diatopic variations (linguistic regional variations) as well as diastratic ones (matching the message to the social status of the interlocutor ). In the final part of the article there are specific suggestions of how to make use of available sources, so as to enable a combination of theory and practice.

El español hablado en Cuba : préstamos vigentes, lexicogénesis y variación lingüística

The variety of Spanish spoken in Cuba, which is a Caribbean Spanish dialect, features at the lexical level an abundance of loan words from various etymological origins (indigenisms, afroamericanisms, anglicisms, gallicisms, among others). In the present research we offer an exhaustive sampling of words of this kind and a taxonomy of the phenomena that motivate their integration into the system that has borrowed them. Among such phenomena, which are proof of the morphological and socio-semantic productiveness of these loan words, we have morphological hybridization through derivation, lexicalization, semantic change, and the formation of semantic doublets through the influence of diatopic and diaphasic variation.