Linguistic Evidence Research Articles

The date and provenance of the Aramaic Targum to Canticles

Targum Canticles is an allegorical interpretation of the biblical book of Canticles written in a special literary form of Aramaic, extant in over one hundred manuscripts dating from the twelfth to the twentieth centuries. The majority of scholars have believed that the work was written in Palestine in the seventh or eighth century, but the linguistic evidence clearly indicates that the author was not an Aramaic or Arabic speaker and did not live in Palestine. In this article I try to show how the language of the Targum suggests that it was written in southern Italy in the eleventh century. This conclusion, based on in-depth analysis of the language of the Targum and comparison with numerous sources, is supported by direct and indirect textual witnesses of the work and has implications for the study of other late Targums.

Grounds for Exemption from Criminal Liability? How Forensic Linguistics Can Contribute to Terrorism Trials

Drawing on Brown and Fraser’s (in: Giles, Scherer (eds) Social markers in speech, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp 33–62, 1979) framework for the analysis of communicative situations and Fuentes Rodríguez’s (Lingüística pragmática y Análisis del discurso, Arco Libros, Madrid, 2000; in Estudios de Lingüística: Investigaciones lingüísticas en el siglo XXI, 2009. https://doi.org/10.14198/ELUA2009.Anexo3.04) model of pragmatic analysis, this paper examines three home-made recordings featuring some of the members of the terrorist cell responsible for the 2017 vehicle-ramming attacks in Barcelona and Cambrils weighted as evidence during the trial held between November 2020 and May 2021 in the Spanish National High Court. The aim of this qualitative analysis is to test whether the linguistic evidence available supports the allegation that the participation in these recordings by one of the accused, Mohamed Houli Chemlal, had been planned by his interlocutors. Results show, first, that the exchanges analyzed present features indicative of both spontaneity and (limited) planification. Second, that Houli makes key contributions to the unfolding of the interactions shown in the recordings and that he does so in a cooperative and apparently relaxed manner, which could at best provide only partial support to his allegations. It is claimed that forensic linguistic analysis can generate valuable insights within terrorism-related legal proceedings.

Samisk påvirkning på skandinavisk grammatikk?

Saami influence on Scandinavian grammar? Older histories of the Scandinavian languages (Danish, Swedish and Norwegian) commonly assume that German has influenced the Scandinavian languages heavily. By contrast, they do not assume any significant influence from the Saami languages. This traditional view has, however, been challenged in an interesting monograph by Kusmenko (2008). While Kusmenko’s hypotheses have been met with scepticism by some specialists of Scandinavian, they have also been received favourably by some, notably Bull (for example in this journal, 2017). Yet Bull also points to an important weakness in Kusmenko’s argument – the near-absence of lexical influence despite the supposedly heavy grammatical influence. However, Bull argues that this absence is apparent rather than real; in Norwegian dialects in the very North, Saami loan-words are more numerous. In this paper, I argue that evidence from these dialects is not necessarily very relevant, since Kusmenko’s hypotheses primarily concern dialects further south. While Kusmenko and Bull are justified in criticising the ideological bias in much language historiography in Norway, and while it now seems clear that prestige relations between speakers of Saami and Scandinavian need not have been the same a millennium ago as they were a century ago, the more strictly linguistic evidence adduced by Kusmenko is still not convincing. The absence of good parallels make his scenario look less plausible.

Secondary nomination in medical discourse from the perspective of cognitive-communicative strategies

The study of medical discourse is one of the key problems of cognitive-communicative grammar, since the sublanguage of medicine - with all its forms and means of expression and general use - is an integral part of any national language. The analysis of professional speech in various communicative situations is of interest to both Ukrainian linguists and researchers of other Slavic languages. The goal of scientific research is to investigate the ways of creating secondary nominative units in medical discourse and to establish their types according to various characteristics. The article summarizes various reasons for the creation of secondary names in modern linguistics, defines the role and significance of the secondary nomination in the process of replenishing the vocabulary of the modern Ukrainian language. The emergence of secondary nominations is caused by both intra-linguistic and extra-linguistic factors. The creation of such names is due mainly to changes in society, which contribute to the deepening of knowledge about objects and phenomena of the real world, the principle of linguistic economy when creating new words, and emotional and expressive factors. The primary nomination, based on object-sensory perception, is a generalization of social experience and the creation of a conceptual level of knowledge, the secondary nomination generalizes linguistic evidence. The main methods of research are: method of component analysis, method of modeling, method of associative experiment and method of cognitive analysis. Conclusions. The role of secondary nomination as a text category is defined, in particular in binary contrasts. It was found that metaphorization is the most productive means of creating secondary names in medical discourse. A typical way of creating secondary names of persons is suffixation as an ancient and traditional way of creating words. The advantage of secondary suffixed names over official foreign terms is that they are more understandable primarily to patients

To each their own: a review of individual differences and metaphorical perspectives on time.

How do people talk-and potentially think-about abstract concepts? Supported by abundant linguistic evidence, Conceptual Metaphor Theory posits that people draw upon concrete concepts to structure abstract ones via metaphorical connections. Often, the source domain for a metaphor draws upon embodied physical experience, as in the time is space system, whereby representations in the domain of time are thought to arise from experiences of navigating through, orienting within, and observing motion in space. In recent years, psychological evidence has suggested that the connections between space and time are indeed conceptual; however, many gaps in our understanding of the workings of metaphor remain. Notably, until recently, the unique variations in the ways in which people experience metaphor have been largely overlooked, with much research falling prey to what Dąbrowska has identified as one of the 'deadly sins' of cognitive linguistics: to ignore individual differences. By focusing on two widely studied metaphors for time, Moving Time and Moving Ego, this review article shines a spotlight on the varied ways in which people draw on their embodied and enculturated experiences, along with 'human experience' on an individual level and the contexts within which they use metaphor. In doing so, it highlights the importance for metaphoric conceptualization of variation across languages, across contexts, and across individuals, suggesting that while the use and interpretation of metaphor may begin with cross-domain connections, they are but part of the story.

LIWC Indicators of Cross-Country Income Inequality at the United Nations General Debate (1987-2020): An Elastic Net Analysis

Can a set of Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC) indicators differentiate between the UN speeches from higher-income and lower-income countries? Based on 34 years of 6,095 speeches (14,300,539 words) and dynamic income grouping, an elastic net analysis selects 18 such categories. The hypothetical explanations are discussed with four theoretical perspectives: gender-neutral language, politeness, scarcity mindset, and expectation states theory. The findings on cross-group LIWC variation provide UN-setting linguistic evidence for the theories and insights into the language of global income inequality between countries.

‘It’s not all about spreading one’s legs’

This article explores the layers of signification and interpretive frames of female adolescents’ nuanced experiences of virginity loss in heterosexual relationships in Akpabuyo and Bakassi Local Government Areas of Cross River State in southeastern Nigeria. This study is theoretically anchored in the social constructionist perspective of doing gender, which conceptualises it as a routine accomplishment embedded in everyday interaction. Drawing on qualitative data using semi-structured interviews with 25 female adolescents who were purposively sampled, we investigate the social, cultural, and structural factors that informed participants’ sexual debut and romantic life trajectories from their nuanced perspectives and experiences. We investigate virginity-based discursive subjectivities under three thematic tropes: coercive/consensual sex, stigma, and patriarchal affordances. The results, based on linguistic evidence, show that participants have ambivalent perceptions of virginity loss and/or preservation: while some were overwhelmed with guilt and tended to align with traditional prescriptions about female sexuality, others viewed it as an extension of patriarchal subjugation of women and interpreted their experience in terms of agency and resistance. In this way, virginity loss discourses provide a prominent site for doing or undoing gender. The study recommends intervention programmes for young rural women to reduce the risk of unplanned pregnancy, sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and HIV/AIDS acquisition as a result of their lack of sexual competence, economic security, and educational empowerment, which have contributed to their vulnerability, victimhood, and exposure to unhealthy sexual practices.

ПОЈЕДИНЕ ИНДИЦИЈЕ О ПРАВОСЛАВНОЈ ВЕРИ КАРАШЕВАКА У РАНОМ НОВОМ ВЕКУ

The paper departs from the finding that in some medieval documents Carasova inhabitants, who are currently Roman-Catholic, were often referred to as schismatic. As a result, i focus in this paper on the study of Carasova customs, aiming to identify characteristics that would confirm and reinforce the validity of the above-mentioned finding. The paper briefly presents and analyses certain rituals and ceremonies (or a part of these rituals and ceremonies) pertaining to the religious life, as well as habits associated with traditional occupations, which contain hints that can be used in a convincing argument about the belonging of Carasova inhabitants to the Orthodox denomination during the Middle Ages. At the same time, illustrating how the traces of the ancient Orthodoxy are reflected in the dialect spoken by Carasova inhabitants, the paper consolidates the thesis with the help of linguistic (lexical) evidence.

HANDSHAKE ACROSS THE NIGER: A STUDY OF LINGUISTIC OUTCOME IN YORÙBÁ-HAUSA CONTACT

This paper examined the relationship between the Yoruba people of South-western Nigeria and the Hausa people of Northern Nigeria within the scope of linguistics. The objective of this paper is to analyze the relationship that exists between these two tribes using linguistic evidence which include analysis of Yoruba borrowed words from Hausa language and Hausa related Yoruba proverbs and proverbial expressions. This work is descriptive in nature and data were gathered from existing literature and from ideal native speakers of Yoruba language with the aid of selected Hausa language helpers. The research findings revealed that Yoruba borrowed words from Hausa language can be classified into two classes which are Alternative borrowing and Non-alternative borrowing. It also discovered that Hausa related Yoruba proverbs and proverbial expressions can be classified to Derogatory Hausa related proverbs which show some form of hate speech and Non-derogatory Hausa related Yoruba proverbs.

Old English terminological word-complexes in natural philosophic worldview (exemplified by terms of astronomy)

The research focuses on the study of terminological word-complexes in Old English. Following a complex multidisciplinary approach, it addresses the linguistic evidence from the viewpoint of terminology, phraseology and linguoculturology. The article analyzes the role of terminological word- complexes from the Anglo-Saxon Manual of Astronomy in the semiotic segment of natural philosophy in the Pre-Norman linguistic community of England. The research is conducted mainly within the framework of linguocultural approach. The 27 terminological word-complexes under analysis belong to the sphere of theoretical and observational astronomy and are taken from the text of the 10th century Anglo-Saxon Manual of Astronomy. The system of methods includes analysis of dictionary definitions, componential analysis, phraseological identification, contextual analysis, etc. The research proceeds from the assumption that Old English astronomic terms subsume culturally significant information on the Early Medieval prescientific worldview. Most terms are substantive phrases denoting heavenly bodies and their characteristics, peculiarities of the Universe’s physical structure, and events of the astronomic calendar. A number of inherent characteristics, such as recurrence of use and metaphoric transformation of the components’ semantics allow for treating the terminological word-complexes as phraseological entities. The entirety of word-complexes falls into two groups of word-combinations of idiomatic and phraseomatiс type. The research consecutively puts to scrutiny the terminological word-complexes verbalizing the concepts ‘heavenly body’, ‘outer space’, and ‘orbital rotation’. Attention is paid to the volume and character of culturally significant information conveyed by the astronomical terms in context and demonstrating the natural philosophical interpretation of the physical world structure as different from the modern scientific views. A conclusion is made that further research of phraseologically bound terminological word-complexes pertaining to various spheres of knowledge is needed to reconstruct the complete picture of natural philosophic worldview for the benefit of phraseology, terminology, linguoculturology and history of English.

A literature review of the role of forensic linguistics in gender-based violent crimes in Italy

The focus of this article is forensic linguistics as applied to gender-based violence (GBV), a current social problem which persists despite the many measures adopted to eradicate it. Gender-based violence leads to different kinds of crimes, which have been studied from several perspectives such as psychology, criminology and law. In this preliminary study of forensic linguistics applied to GBV crimes in Italy in particular, we aim to provide a review of the research literature on GBV and forensic linguistics. We begin by considering the discipline of forensic linguistics and introducing two psychological models – Walker (1979) and Pence (1993) – which are helpful in contextualising GBV. We then proceed in two directions: first, we examine communication between victims and legal sector professionals; and second, we consider linguistic evidence for police and judicial investigation through discourse analysis of communication between perpetrators and victims. Finally, conclusions are drawn with an eye to future scenarios.

Independence or Interdependence?: The Thai Self-Construal as Reflected by Linguistic Evidence

Abstract Self-construal can influence the ways people in distinct cultures think, perceive and interact with others. To date, scholars still present different arguments on the prominent self-construal of Thais. The present study aims at examining Thai linguistic data including proverbs, sayings, cultural key terms and interactional data in response to the question of whether Thai culture places emphasis on independent or interdependent perspectives of the self. The findings reveal that Thai sayings, proverbs and cultural key terms reflect both independent and interdependent self-construals. Yet, those that stress interdependency outnumber independency. As for interactional practices in daily exchanges, the usage of pronominal terms, final particles for (im)politeness and lexical variants marking interpersonal relationships make it mandatory for Thai speakers to pay attention to interpersonal relationships. Lastly, in task-based superior-subordinate conversations, collaborative and non-confrontational styles are preferred by Thai superiors. Their interactional style reflects features influenced by interdependent self-construal.

Contrastive relational markers in women’s expository writing in nineteenth-century English

This study seeks to analyse the occurrence of contrastive relational markers in a corpus of recipes called Corpus of Women’s Instructive Texts in English, the 19th century sub-corpus (COWITE19). Opposition relations, also referred to as adversative or contrastive, are usually identified with markers such as “but”, “although”, and “however”. From a semantic point of view, a classification of these relations can be established into contrast, concession, and corrective, based on their linguistic evidence, lexical differences and syntactic behaviour (Izutsu, 2008). A further rhetorical function is antithesis, presented as a consistent device possessed of a verbal, analytical and persuasive nature (Fahnestock, 1999). The analysis of these markers is made following a computerised corpus analysis methodology and tries to discern which contrastive markers are mostly employed for the instructions conveyed by females. It also shows which opposition relation is predominant, whether contrastive, concessive, or corrective and, finally, it detects antithesis as an additional opposing meaning. In all cases, the possible argumentative role of these markers is highlighted as another step in the characterisation of women’s scientific writing.

An island 'endemic' born out of hybridization between introduced lineages.

Humans have profoundly impacted the distribution of plant and animal species over thousands of years. The most direct example of these effects is human-mediated movement of individuals, either through translocation of individuals within their range or through the introduction of species to new habitats. While human involvement may be suspected in species with obvious range disjunctions, it can be difficult to detect natural versus human-mediated dispersal events for populations at the edge of a species' range, and this uncertainty muddles how we understand the evolutionary history of populations and broad biogeographical patterns. Studies combining genetic data with archaeological, linguistic and historical evidence have confirmed prehistoric examples of human-mediated dispersal; however, it is unclear whether these methods can disentangle recent dispersal events, such as species translocated by European colonizers during the past 500 years. We use genomic DNA from historical museum specimens and historical records to evaluate three hypotheses regarding the timing and origin of Northern Bobwhites (Colinus virginianus) in Cuba, whose status as an endemic or introduced population has long been debated. We discovered that bobwhites from southern Mexico arrived in Cuba between the 12th and 16th centuries, followed by the subsequent introduction of bobwhites from the southeastern USA to Cuba between the 18th and 20th centuries. These dates suggest the introduction of bobwhites to Cuba was human-mediated and concomitant with Spanish colonial shipping routes between Veracruz, Mexico and Havana, Cuba during this period. Our results identify endemic Cuban bobwhites as a genetically distinct population born of hybridization between divergent, introduced lineages.

Distorted Korean Idol’s Scandal, Deceitful Media, and The Role of Forensic Linguistics

A celebrity’s scandal can be an enthralling theme for the media to produce news, either factual or fabricated. This research primarily focuses on distorted content or media manipulation to report it. It explores the correlation between misleading news and the motives behind twisted reality. The method used in this research is a descriptive qualitative method through the lens of the forensic linguistics approach, supported by Villa’s interpretative pragmatics (2010). The collected data were from selected sources of distorted media reporting, especially about a highly considered Korean singer’s crime, known Seungri of Bigbang. His charge was not direct link with sexual abuse and systematic drugs, which is in fact unrevealed wealthy people committing them. Even nonconsensual disclosure of sexually-explicit videos was committed by other celebrities. Yet, the media fraudulently blended and misrepresented Seungri as the key figure of the scandal in a club named ‘Burning Sun’. Society was misled to hate and blame him. This research shows that passive constructions, lexical references, and subject matters of the texts become linguistic evidence of fact distortion. Manipulating celebrity’s scandal is driven by political goals, such as creating mistrust and bewildering larger audiences, especially in South Korea about proving the justice system as the actual culprits are withdrawn. This research is noteworthy since there are interwoven claims of the power of media to wriggle out of legal punishments after spreading distorted facts. Hence, it implies that pragmatics is applicable and efficacious to prove the case. It leads to defamation by media, correlated with forensic linguistics. To reveal the distorted facts by deceitful media, this study expectantly contributes in enhancing social awareness of the truth behind blatant public outrage and its social consequences.

An historical reassessment of the maritime Southeast Asian forest and marine commodities trade and its implications for archaeological investigations of Asian contact in northern Australia

This paper reassesses the maritime Southeast Asian forest and marine commodities trade from the sixteenth century to World War I. The ‘Macassan’ traders who visited northern Australia were primarily from Makassar and southern Sulawesi (including Bugis, or Bajau and Sumbawan immigrants) and the Lesser Sunda Islands (to where these ethnic groups had migrated) but also included the Indigenous Australians who accompanied them on their voyages. Research into other ethnic groups (Chinese, Makassar-Malay, Seram Laut Islanders, Solorese and Timorese mariners) also associated with both northern Australia and the maritime Southeast Asian forest and marine trade suggests that they be included in the ‘Macassan’ group. Analysis of historical sources for the late nineteenth–early twentieth century Macassan trepang (sea cucumber) industry in north Australia demonstrates that perahu spare cargo capacity was filled with additional commodities when the trepang harvest was low, ensuring voyage profitability. Comparison of the maritime Southeast Asian trade with ethnographic, archaeological, historical, and linguistic evidence in northern Australia, suggests that 20 commodities were likely to have been exported from the latter, seven of which have never before been mentioned in the literature. Mapping of the Macassan routes transporting the 20 commodities shows that northern Australia was connected to a vast network of maritime Southeast and East Asian trade with global reach. The importance of these findings for Asian contact archaeology in northern Australia is threefold: (1) archaeologists should look beyond ceramic provenance, metal, and glass to seek material and chronological evidence for the extraction and processing of a wider range of forest and marine commodities; (2) evidence for the extraction of particular commodities might be a proxy for age estimation of a site; and (3) the origins of introduced material culture will reflect its East, South, and Southeast Asian and, ultimately, global connectivity.

Challenging Basic Assumptions in Code-Switching Research: New Linguistic, Sociolinguistic and Psycholinguistic Evidence

The aim of this Special Issue is to bring together research evidence from studies into code-switching, that is, the alternation and mixing of languages as practiced on a daily basis by bilinguals throughout the world [...]

Lockdown scepticism: Australian and American doom discourse on Reddit

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent infodemic, user consumption of online news content soared, leading to the issues of doom-scrolling and doom-writing. This type of behaviour may have an adverse impact on individual well-being and increase exposure to misinformation on social networking sites (SNSs), including Reddit. The present critical discourse study combines Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), Pragma-dialectics (PD) and critical theory to explore the roles of power and ideology in a corpus extracted from r/LockdownSkepticismAU and r/LockdownSkepticism, and to evaluate the Redditors’ argumentation. The analysis shows that the users of both subreddits appear to compensate a perceived loss of agency by making improbable statements about the future. The doomers’ arguments, as part of their online deliberations on issues relating to national COVID-19 prevention policy, reveal several fallacies. Linguistic evidence is provided for how biopower, in its ability to further life or death, is constitutive of the social norms to which both subreddit communities subscribe.

Linguistic evidence for the Indo-European and Albanian origin of Aphrodite

I consider the question of the source of the divine name Aphrodite, arguing that the etymology of the name indicates an Albanian and Illyrian origin. I first survey different etymological hypotheses and give reasons for rejecting them and then turn to motivating the Albanian sound changes necessary for taking the name to derive from Albanian sources. The historical and linguistic evidence will show that the Albanian phrase afro dita ‘come forth the day/dawn’ can be posited back to a Proto-Albanian *apro dītā a reflex of Proto-Indo-European *h2epero déh2itis. Modern Albanian afro dita refers to Aphrodite’s celestial origin. Aphrodite was first and foremost known as the planet Venus, which can only be seen during the dawn. Only Modern Albanian afro dita ‘come forth the day/dawn’ indicates this exact time when the planet Venus is visible in the sky. The celestial concept of Aphrodite was adapted by a Pre-Proto-Albanian group (Illyrians) from the Phoenicians, who first brought knowledge of the goddess to Europe.

Knowing, Telling, Trusting

Abstract This paper falls into three parts. The first looks at wh-constructions, focussing on the so-called factual whs, ‘X knows where… ’, ‘when’, ‘who’, ‘what’ etc. I suggest, drawing on both linguistic considerations and evidence from developmental psychology, that these constructions take things as their objects, not propositions; and that this may be why they are learned before those taking sentential complements. The second part moves to the case of telling-wh: to constructions such as telling someone who is at the door. This construction brings a very particular set of requirements, not just to tell the truth, but to tell all the relevant truths and nothing but. The third section, in a critical discussion of Katherine Hawley's work, argues that an account of trust and testimony focussing on the telling-wh construction brings better results than one focussed on the blander idea of assertion.