Construction Of Questions Research Articles

Improving Learners’ English-Speaking Accuracy by Using Interrogative Constructions

English speaking accuracy is one of the most important aspects of Business English. While most studies are conducted to improve English speaking accuracy, they neglect phrasal semantics. This present study involves 30 participants from Phu Em Company. The study employs a mixed-methods design in which the quantitative approach helps quantify the speaking accuracy scores made by learners while the qualitative approach explores how learners perceive the use of interrogative constructions. The instruments are a questionnaire and an interview. Data analysis procedures include a theme analysis of the interview data, a statistical analysis of the test and survey data, and integrated findings. The findings from this research provide evidence that using interrogative constructions does not improve grammatical or phonological accuracy but improves expressing accuracy. The study also reveals that 58% of EG learners provide positive feedback on the use of interrogative constructions in learning English speaking skills. Based on the findings, several suggestions are offered to teachers and learners.

Мовні засоби створення портрета в художньому мовленні Кетрін Беннер (на матеріалі роману «Дім на краю ночі»)

In the article, the linguistic means of creating a portrait in artistic discourse by Catherine Banner are revealed. The research material is based on the novel «The House at the Edge of Night». The article analyses contemporary scholarly investigations that outline key verbalization tools for character portrait descriptions. Emphasis is placed on the fact that various linguistic levels contribute to the creation of a character’s portrait. The functional potential of emotionally evaluative lexicon, phraseology, literary tropes (metaphors, epithets, comparisons), and expressive syntactic devices (sentence partitioning, interrogative constructions, nominative sentences) is highlighted. Our research material was selected using the method of continuous sampling. The disclosure of linguistic means for creating a portrait in Catherine Banner’s artistic discourse is carried out through a descriptive method. Furthermore, the article underscores the crucial role of describing a character’s appearance in forming a portrait. In particular, in Catherine Banner’s works, a clear correlation between the depiction of characters’ appearance and their inner worlds is evident. To reveal the interconnection between these portrait components, the author uses various expressive tools, including epithets, metaphors, comparisons, antitheses, hyperboles, and gradations. Using these means, the writer not only achieves a certain level of expressiveness in the literary text but also creates vivid and convincing character images. Prospects for further research include studying the linguistic means for portrait creation to uncover the writer’s idiolect.

Linguistic realizations of engagement in TED talks

The article describes linguistic items used for actualizing the engagement strategy in the oral genre of popular science discourse of TED lectures, which seems to be understudied in modern scientific linguistics literature. A huge number of studies have shown that popular science discourse is an interactive event, the success of which depends on the degree and efficiency of interaction between the speaker and the audience. However, the metadiscourse strategies employed in popular science genres, including TED talks addressed to a wide audience, remain insufficiently studied. The research gap in this area of pragmalinguistics predetermines the need to study the strategies of interaction between the speaker and the audience. The research corpus consists of 80 scripts of TED talks posted on the ted.com website. The aim of the study is to analyze linguistic items used for realizing the strategy of engagement of the audience into the discussion, their categories, pragmatic functions and frequency. In order to study the types, functions and frequency of linguistic actualizers of engagement, the methods of quantitative and interpretive analysis were adopted. The study showed that TED lecturers use a variety of language tools, the most productive of which were questions and reader mentions. It was found that at the lexical and grammatical levels, the engagement strategy was realized through imperative verbs, first and second personal pronouns, interrogative constructions, as well as impersonal constructions with solidarity adjectives. The results of the analysis suggested that TED speakers strive to construct an effective dialogue with the addressee, to engage the audience in the process of representing scientific information, making it accessible to lay listeners. It was concluded that the pragmatically correct use of the engagement strategy in the genre of TED talks is an indicator of the pragmatic competence of the speaker and the key to effective communication with the audience.

Modal frames of English interrogative constructions and their emotional and implicative shades

The article presents the results of studying the secondary functions of the interrogative constructions of the English language, actualized in various modal frameworks. The relevance of the research is due to the fact that interrogative sentences, widely used in literary texts, closely interacting with declarative and imperative, are an important means of structuring knowledge about the world. However, they have not yet received a comprehensive analysis of their functional, semantic and pragmatic features. The purpose of the work is to study in fiction the modal framework of English interrogative constructions, as well as their emotional and implicative shades. The subject area of this study relates to the lexical and grammatical level of communication, which can be implemented in everyday, official, special, and other communication. And since all these types of communication are manifested to one degree or another in a literary text, Russian and English fiction of the XIX-XX centuries was used as the main research material. When describing the material under study, both separate sentences and text fragments of variable volume are used, including both explicit and presuppositive indications of the communication situation. With the use of descriptive, functional, transformational and contextual methods, the structural and functional features of interrogative constructions are analyzed, their text-forming capabilities are revealed, expressive and stylistic properties are characterized, the most significant modal frames as indicators of the communicative aim of the utterance. The indicators of modality of the studied constructions are established, which are expressed by intonation, word order, lexical content, context, and the described situation. The reasons for the preference of interrogative constructions in the secondary function to their main function are revealed, the illocutionary acts expressed by them are determined. The cases of modification of the dictum meaning of interrogative constructions in the structure of a literary text are described in detail, as well as the means of modification themselves – context, negator, situation.

Formand function in serial verb constructions – insights fromGerman Sign Language

German Sign Language (DGS) exhibits constructions which seem to meet the generaldefinition of serial verb constructions (SVCs). I demonstrate that the constructions inquestion have characteristics known to be shared by similar constructions in other spokenand signed languages, both in terms of form and in terms of function. I argue thatwithin the typological picture, the DGS data suggest three things. First, it is most likelythe case that very different structures can derive similar surface data; for example, verbphrases may be concatenated via complementation or adjunction. Relatedly, the factthat languages differ in the variability of verb order in SVCs (i.e. which verbs can appearwhere to render certain readings) is a side effect of these differences in concatenation.Finally, in certain cases, a degree of linear uniformity across languages is introducedby conventionalization due to temporal iconicity. This presupposes that the languagesin question already have the structures necessary to generate strings of verb phrases,a subset of which are perceived as iconic. Where temporal iconicity is not found, linearordering exhibits more typological variation, as the syntax of a given language maygenerate more than one order.

A Comparative Study of Punjabi and English Open-Ended Syntactic Constructions Through the Revised Extended Standard Transformational Generative Theory

Punjabi is one of the major languages spoken in Pakistan, India, and many other parts of the world. Despite its popularity, Punjabi has not been studied and explored extensively, especially with respect to its syntax. In this study, the open-ended syntactic constructions of Punjabi were looked at using the revised extended standard transformational (REST) generative theory. This was done to find out how the surface structures of open-ended interrogative syntactic constructions in Punjabi are made from their deep structures. Subsequently, the Punjabi constructions are compared to their English counterparts with respect to REST to figure out syntactic similarities and dissimilarities between the open-ended syntactic constructions of both languages. The data for this qualitative study has been taken from a ‘Punjabi book, Descriptive Grammars by Bhatia (2013). The selected data has been analyzed through X-bar tree diagrams. The exploratory research design has been used to conduct this study. The findings of this study reveal that Punjabi and English are syntactically distinct languages. Punjabi is an in-situ language since the question words do not move to generate surface structures, while English is an ex-situ language as the question words move to form surface structures through the transformational rules of ‘Wh’ movement and operator movement. Also, English uses dummy auxiliaries, whereas no such dummies are used in Punjabi. Finally, Punjabi interrogative constructions have reduplication features, unlike English open-ended constructions. The syntactic disparities between these two languages have implications for SOV language learners who aspire to learn English and for those enrolled in undergraduate and graduate programs.

Interactive map «Patient Enquiry» as a teaching method for medical students

The need for a serious theoretical understanding of dynamically developing types of visual media content, which include interactive infographics has determined the relevance of the research. Medical students must structure, present and remember the algorithm for questioning the patient. The creation of such texts provides favorable conditions for the implementation of the principles of visibility and communication. One of the practical methods of such a multimedia text can be an educational and methodological cluster on the topic «Angina pectoris», designed to train foreign students of medical universities, which helps to form and develop the necessary skills and competencies of future medical students. The problem of the research is to substantiate the interactive map “Patient Enquiry” as a method of teaching medical students.The purpose of the research is to create interactive infographics aimed at systematizing and consolidating the knowledge of medical students in the «Patient Enquiry» section.The research methods. The article describes practical experience of creating interactive infographics of the «Patient Enquiry» section (on the example of Angina pectoris) for 2d and 3d year medical students.The research results. The first information block is a list of information requested by a doctor from a patient. Block II is a cluster of lexical and grammatical information materials. Block III includes interrogative constructions for each thematic block and options for the patient’s answers.Key findings. The dominance of visual information has a meaningful and structural impact on both the educational sphere and psychology of a student. A doctor with communication technologies is able to create an atmosphere of trust and mutual respect that is comfortable for a patient, to solve his professional task - to effectively diagnose the disease. The result of teaching the language of the specialty should be stable knowledge, skills and communication skills in the educational, scientific and professional fields with further access to a doctor’s professional speech.

LESIA UKRAINKA’S SONNET POEM AS A DYNAMIC SYSTEM

A sonnet poem, typically consisting of a thesis, an antithesis, and a conclusion, is a dynamic entity by its very nature. In the sonnets by Lesia Ukrainka, various aspects of such dynamics can be observed at both the proper textual and intertextual levels. At the textual level, an important role in the dynamization of the text system is primarily played by numerous lexical and syntactic repetitions. While tradition has long prevented the use of lexical repetitions in sonnet texts, the experience of outstanding masters, such as Lesia Ukrainka, proves that disregarding this tradition occurs due to the author’s creative approach to the issue.
 The figurative and semantic dynamics of Lesia Ukrainka’s sonnets are often initiated with the very first word, which is further actualized through anaphoric and other repeated elements. In the first version of the “Fa” sonnet, the highly expressive dynamics of gradation in rhetorical interrogative sentences, introduced in the second quatrain, reach their intense paradigmatic expression in the tercet endings. To a large extent, a different character of the figurative and intonation course, corresponding to the meaningful intra-dialogical unfolding of the literary canvas, can be traced in the compositional system of the sonnet “The Last Song of Maria Stewart”, where the initial interrogative construction finds a logical continuation in the final lines of the exclamatory sentence.
 The sonnet “Breath of the Desert”, the figurative dynamics of which are realized mostly due to the intertextual situation, shows still another character of the compositional course. Based on the perception of Lesia Ukrainka’s poem “Khamsin”, written, by the way, on the same day as the sonnet (both poems belong to the “Spring in Egypt” cycle), the image of the free and capricious wind (‘khamsin’) acquires a deep meaning. Intertextual and apperceptive dynamics can also be observed in the Bakhchysarai triptych from the cycle “Crimean Memories”, which undoubtedly alludes to Adam Mickiewicz’s “Crimean Sonnets”. However, the perception of the literary heritage here is highly individual: unlike Mickiewicz’s generally romantic interpretation of events, Lesia Ukrainka discusses the affairs of long-gone days in her sonnet from the standpoint of a narrator ‒ a contemporary of the new age, who interprets historical processes in relation to present realities.

DYNAMICS OF FUNCTIONING OF NEWS MEDIA TEXTS

The article considers the issue of the dynamics of the communicative and linguistic transformation of the information occasion in the print and online publications of Kazakhstan. The news devoted to the reforms of the SAPF of Kazakhstan was chosen as the object of research, since this topic is relevant on the scale of news values. The data of the monitoring company "Medialogia" were used as the research material, which includes more than a thousand names of newspapers and news sites in Kazakhstan. In the course of the study, four main stages in the dynamics of news distribution were identified: selection, origin, active dissemination and extinction; among which the third period is of interest, in which the dynamic nature of media texts is more clearly manifested. Publications on the topic during the period of active dissemination were classified according to semantic characteristics: description of the actions of official bodies, description of the actions of the people, advice, analytics, authoritative opinion. In addition, this period is characterized by a wide stylistic range, where the frequency of linguistic means are: keywords of the topic, verbs of speech, interrogative constructions, orientation metaphors, accurate and approximate numerical data, evaluative vocabulary. The results of the study can be used by specialists in the field of mass communication, students of the humanities of universities interested in the functioning of language in the media.

A feature-sharing analysis of interrogative constructions with negation in Korean

A feature-sharing analysis of interrogative constructions with negation in Korean

Code-switching input for machine translation: a case study of Vietnamese–English data

ABSTRACT Multilingualism presents both a challenge and an opportunity for Natural Language Processing, with code-switching representing a particularly interesting problem for computational models trained on monolingual datasets. In this paper, we explore how code-switched data affects the task of Machine Translation, a task which only recently has started to tackle the challenge of multilingual data. We test three Machine Translation systems on data from the Canberra Vietnamese–English Codeswitching Natural Speech Corpus (CanVEC) and evaluate translation output using both automatic and human metrics. We find that, perhaps counter-intuitively, Machine Translation performs better on code-switching input than monolingual input. In particular, comparison of human and automatic evaluation suggests that codeswitching input may boost the semantic faithfulness of the translation output, an effect we term lexico-semantic enrichment. We also report two cases where this effect is most and least clear in Vietnamese–English, namely gender-neutral 3SG pronouns and interrogative constructions respectively. Overall, we suggest that Machine Translation, and Natural Language Processing more generally, ought to view multilingualism as an opportunity rather than an obstacle. Abbreviations: 1: First person; 2: Second person; 3: Third person; CLF: Classifier; COP: Copula; DET: Determiner; PL: Plural; POSS: Possessive marker; PRT: Particle; PST: Past tense; Q: Question marker; SG: Singular

Text validation: Overlooking discrepancies in question constructions.

There is converging evidence that readers monitor text coherence and consistency by immediate, nonstrategic processes of validation. The literature also offers numerous instances of deficient validation. A prominent example of the latter is that understanders tend to overlook discourse anomalies that are embedded in given (presupposed) sentence information. However, we previously documented reading time "consistency effects" (O'Brien & Albrecht, 1992) that exposed readers' sensitivity to both given and new text discrepancies in numerous declarative syntactic constructions (Singer et al., 2017; Singer & Spear, 2020). Five new experiments addressed these phenomena with reference to constructions regularly shown to mask discourse inconsistencies: namely, interrogatives. In striking contrast with declaratives, five interrogative conditions in four experiments yielded no significant consistency effect. Experiments 2-4 documented coincident consistency effects with declarative but not interrogative constructions. A fifth experiment denied that the interrogative-construction findings resulted from readers' lack of knowledge about critical concepts. The cognitive-scientific linguistic construct of verb resolutivity offers a possible basis for these outcomes. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Malay Interrogative Sentences: X-Bar Analysis

This study examines the syntactic behavior of question words of malay in the interrogative construction in north labuhanbatu. This study aimed to analyze the question words of all interrogative types in the language. Therefore, the research data cover question words known as word malay in north labuhanbatu which are derived from the relevant literature. The theoretical framework used in this study is the X-bar theory proposed by Haegeman (1992). The data analysis techniques used in this research were distributed methods which use the language element determination tool itself. The results show that the malay north labuhanbatu partial sentence has a grammatical and complementary grammatical function, while the total question sentence has a complement function. Malay question words can be constructed by specifier, complements, and adverbials. The Malay question sentence formed by specifier functions as an internal structure occupied by the NP and joined by I’ to form an IP. Furthermore, the question words formed by complement functions as an internal structure occupied by PP or NP and joined by V to form the first V'. Finally, the question words formed by adverbial functions as an internal structure that can be occupied by PP or NP to join the first V' then form the second V'.

Teaching Special Questions: The Role of Semantics and Pragmatics in Colloquial Interrogative Structures in Spanish

In this paper we analyze the semantic and pragmatic properties of a colloquial interrogative construction attested in European Spanish, which we label invariable qué questions (IQQs). In doing so, we contribute to the better understanding of a relatively understudied phenomenon in Spanish, given that IQQs have been mainly approached from a purely syntactic standpoint. We claim that evidentiality and irony play a crucial role in the understanding of IQQs. Because of their special interpretative functions, as well as the fact that they do not appear to have a clear correlate in other languages, we believe IQQs pose a challenge to the second language student, which is why we further offer a step-by-step proposal to introduce IQQs in the Spanish as a second language class.

Повседневное деловое общение: коммерческий чат, его специфика и роль в организации быта горожан

The article deals with the study of everyday virtual business communication. The digital age has a huge impact on individuals, significantly changing their lives, and the life of society is increasingly immersed in the virtual space. The material of the study is Internet communication, specifically group communication of citizens, residents of Saratov, in one of the commercial chats: the speech of women’s clothing sellers and buyers. The purpose of the study is to show the development of the chat genre and its functioning in business communication. The methods applied are those of participant observation and of discursive analysis. The specific features of the chat were manifested in a steadily followed topic of communication (no changes of topic occur). This reflects one of the important communication practices in people’s daily lives – the one related to the purchase / sale of goods. The business sphere leaves its mark on the choice of the type of communication: a mixed type of communication (semi-official) is being implemented. The dominant communicative strategy is the strategy of cooperative speech interaction, including courtesy tactics (tactics representing initial and final contact, gratitude expression tactics, compliment tactics, etc.). These developments represent the process whereby a culture of virtual business communication based on the principle of mutual respect is being formed. The article also studies linguistic features of the chat. In the speech of the communicants, the vocabulary of the thematic group “Clothes and hats” is mainly used: blouse, turtleneck, jeans, jumper, bonnet, etc. Another word group constitutes foreign vocabulary related to the world of fashion which has not yet been fixed in the Russian language (jeggings, snood, skinny, moms, etc.). Conversational signals used in the chat include diminutives (blouse, skirt, novelty), communicatives (for example, the conjunction A used in the initial position in interrogative constructions). The chat contains manifestations of the official business style in the field of trade – professional speech stereotypes: available, new arrival, etc. Attention is drawn to the use of emoticons: their set is limited and chat-specific. Chat communication can be defined as effective communication that improves the life of citizens.

Interrogative Constructions in Guaraní: Grammatical, Pragmatic and Typological Aspects

This article is set in the framework of typological and functional studies on interrogativity, and focuses on the study of Guaraní, based on primary data collected in Formosa (Argentina). Interrogative constructions encode the speaker’s request for information, and their intention to confirm the underlying statement of the information that is the focus of the question. This topic has been partially addressed in previous descriptive works on Guaraní. There are, however, aspects in this domain yet to be explored. One involves the functions and meanings of the different interrogative strategies this language exhibits and the semantic particularities of their combination. In this regard, we analyze the distribution, meaning and pragmatic function of clitics =pa and =piko in polar and content questions. Furthermore, a preliminary analysis of tag questions (as a subtype of polar questions) is advanced here. Finally, we also discuss the way how the concurrence of interrogative words and clitics in Guarani is pragmatically and semantically motivated by the speaker’s epistemic attitude when posing the question.

STRUCTURAL AND SEMANTIC ANALYSIS OF FRENCH PROVERBS WITH THE CONCEPT OF “PAIN”

Background. In the case of a person speaking foreign language the proverb acts not only as an argument of their own statement but also as a mean of saving language. Therefore, the statement becomes more vivid, meaningful when using fewer words. Since “pain” is one of the basic proverbial concepts of the French language, such proverbs have become the object of the study.
 Purpose. The article deals with the proverbs with the concept “pain” in grammatical and syntactic structure as well as their semantic meaning.
 Materials and methods. The actual material for the study was open electronic publications. Analyzing the material, the author of the article used the method of continuous sampling, as well as methods of analysis and synthesis.
 Results. The results of the analysis showed that there was an uncharacteristic word order in the proverbs with “pain”. The studied proverbs revealed both complex sentences, the dependent part of which most often begins with si, quand, qui, and simple ones, among which a fairly large number of constructions are averbal. Not a single case of the use of interrogative constructions was revealed. Among the motivational verbs, the most frequent were verbs in the imperative mood, the phrase Il faut, Subjonctif.
 There were cases of absence of the article, parallelism, anaphora, especially in the preposition, as well as oppositions.
 The high variability of the studied proverbs (up to 30 variants) is revealed, expressed in the use of various lexical means while preserving the general meaning.
 The plurality nature of proverbs is noted, since most of them have both literal and figurative meanings.
 Practical implications. The results of the study can be used to improve the linguistic and cultural competence of students.

Interrogative Constructions in Cuban Spanish as a Second Language

This work investigates the structure and meaning of main clause wh-questions in Cuban Spanish and argues that individuals learning Cuban Spanish as a Second Language will benefit from practice with grammatical structures that illustrate this behavior. We show that grammaticality judgment data that we obtained from monolingual Cuban Spanish speakers indicate that inverted word order is more likely with non-D-linked and non-Complex wh-expressions, and least likely with D-linked and Complex wh-expressions. More broadly, we argue that this data indicates that Interrogative Inversion in Cuban Spanish is syntactically distinct from Inversion in English wh-questions, and that learners of Spanish as a Second Language thus benefit from exposure to these specific constructions.

‘Do’-support in the northern Italian Camuno

The Camuno dialect uses an auxiliary fa ‘do’ in an interrogative construction that strongly resembles English do-support. Stages of its grammaticalization remain within the different valley dialects. When optional, fa-support (FS) coexists with verb-subject clitic inversion (SCI), e.g fa-la mangià (does she eat) / màngia-la (eats-she)‘l peh da hena? (the fish for supper?) There are semantic restrictions on the type of supported verb: manner > result > state. Questions are pragmatically marked with speaker answer expectations, and are opinion-seeking. A wh-item (normally ‘insitu’) has specific reference. Impersonal questions are agrammatical with optional FS but not obligatory FS. A biclausal model with a lexically rich fa ‘do’ is suggested for optional FS.

Perception of Prosodic and Aspectual Cues to Politeness in Teacher Directives in L1 and L2 Russian

Background: Several studies in interlanguage pragmatics have reported Russian directive speech acts to take a particular position within the dimensions of linguistic politeness and (in)directness, when compared to some Germanic and Romance languages extensively studied in this framework.Purpose of the study: The present paper aimed to investigate the role of language specific cues to politeness in Russian requests by examining their perception by native speakers and L2 learners in a scenario of teacher-student interaction.Methods: An experiment was conducted in which L1 and L2 groups rated the politeness of teacher directives in Russian on a discrete 7-point scale. Three variables were controlled for in the experimental design: the directness of the speech act (manifested in the choice between an imperative or an interrogative construction), verbal aspect, and the type of nuclear pitch accent.Findings: The obtained data generally corroborate existing studies, demonstrating that both native Russian speakers and learners of Russian with Chinese L1 do not judge as impolite direct imperative strategies employed in teacher requests. Though both groups of participants similarly relied on intonational cues in their judgements, the L2 learners did not perform target-like in evaluating the pragmatics of verbal aspect. Within the native group, the usage of imperfective verbs both in direct and conventionally indirect constructions was perceived as a highly salient indicator of impoliteness. Conversely, the size of this effect in L2 judgements did not reach a significance level, implying that this language specific cue is not acquired through incidental learning at pre-intermediate or intermediate proficiency levels.Conclusions: Taken together, these findings highlight the importance of explicit pragmatic instruction even for students who have sufficient experience studying abroad; furthermore, they outline new directions for empirical studies in Russian from the perspective of interlanguage pragmatics.