Lexical Items Research Articles

The Problems of Translating Classical Arabic Embedded in Saudi Novels from a Cultural Perspective

This essay examines the problematic issues that arise when translating classical Arabic language embedded in contemporary Saudi literature, with a particular emphasis on Girls of Riyadh a modern Saudi novel written .The premise of the present study is that classical Arabic has undergone semantic change through pejoration amelioration, through which their original meanings have been either completely changed or different connotations have been added. When the classical Arabic terms are used in an informal context, they may acquire new connotations, the interpretation of which is totally different from their original meaning. In most cases, these classical lexical items have been transformed into dialectal lexical items. Therefore, the present study inquires whether the translation of the classical Arabic elements embedded in Girls of Riyadh effectively and comprehensively captures the impact, pragmatics, style, atmosphere, aesthetics, and culture shown in the novel. A methodology based on corpus linguistics has been employed. This study engages in descriptive research by analyzing source text-target text pairs. The corpus of the study was composed of 29 examples taken from Girls of Riyadh. The study involved categorizing selected classical Arabic phrases from the Saudi novel as cultural indicators and examining their translation using House's covert translation idea and criteria, as well as Dickins's levels of cultural transposition. The findings of this study indicate that the translators predominantly employed a communicative approach, omitting classical Arabic terms or rendering them into formal English instead of employing tactics of domestication or foreignization.

Which factors predict teachers’ evaluation of the difficulty and usefulness of phrasal verbs in L2 contexts?

Abstract Research examining teachers’ cognition of lexical items has flourished in the past few years. However, most of these studies focused on individual words rather than formulaic sequences. The present study aims to fill this gap through eliciting teachers’ evaluation of one type of formulaic sequences: phrasal verbs (PVs). The aim is to examine factors (frequency, opacity, and learners’ receptive and productive knowledge) that might predict teachers’ evaluation of the difficulty and usefulness of 100 PV senses. For that purpose, a survey was administered to 174 teachers. Results of generalized mixed-effects modelling showed that teachers’ assessment of both the usefulness and difficulty of PVs was predicted by sense-specific corpus frequency and receptive knowledge of these PV senses. Moreover, difficulty ratings were additionally affected by opacity and productive knowledge of PVs. We discuss these findings in relation to previous research on L2 PV knowledge and implications for L2 teaching practice.

Linguistic Obstacles Faced in Translating Some Unique Qur’anic Cultural Lexical Items into English: Reexploring Some Translation Approaches

This research paper aimed to identify the linguistic obstacles met in translating some unique Qur’anic cultural lexical items into English through the lens of translation approaches. The study used a qualitative descriptive method and Nord’s (1991) text analysis model in translation. The findings showed that the most used approach to translating the implication of Qur’anic cultural lexical items was that of word-for-word and verbatim translation, and this resulted in a deep meaning loss and manipulating the perfect translation. The study also found that Al-Hilali and Khan’s and Abdel-Haleem’s translation approach, contrastingly, seems to be predominantly translated text-oriented, and thus conforms to the strategy of free translation, putting pivotal descriptive details in brackets, footnotes, or as a paraphrasis. The study concluded that Pickthall was inclined to resort to a literal translation strategy, which often gives rise to obscurity and problems because it does not consider the idiomatic meaning and implicit meaning of the Qur’anic Cultural Lexical Items.

COGNITIVE METHODS: THE LEVEL ANALYSIS OF DISCOURSE MARKERS

Discourse markers frequently develop over time and have their origins in earlier linguistic forms. Many markers begin as complete lexical items, such as conjunctions, adverbs, or verbs, and then pick up extra pragmatic functions. They gradually become increasingly semantically "bleached" and serve as discourse markers, losing some of their initial meaning.

Is L2 pronunciation affected by increased task complexity in pronunciation-unfocused speaking tasks?

Abstract This study examines the effects of task complexity on second language (L2) pronunciation accuracy and global pronunciation measures in pronunciation-unfocused tasks and assesses the relationship between acoustic and listener-based pronunciation measures. Eighty-two Catalan/Spanish learners of English performed simple and complex versions of a problem-solving monologic speaking task, for which the oral stops /p, t, k/ and vowel contrasts /iː/-/ɪ/ and /æ/-/ᴧ/ were embedded in the lexical items used to perform the task. Pronunciation accuracy was gauged through acoustic measurements of laryngeal timing (voice onset time), vowel contrastiveness and nativelikeness (Mahalanobis distances), and native speakers’ ratings of comprehensibility and accentedness. Results revealed detrimental effects of increased task complexity on the productions of oral stops and speech comprehensibility and accentedness; however, no consistent task complexity effects were found on vowel accuracy. The analysis also revealed an association between segmental accuracy and global dimensions of L2 speech.

Politeness on Public Signs in Japanese And Indonesian Train Cars - A Study Of Linguistic Landscape

The study reports on the comparison of the esxpressions of politeness used in Japanese and Indonesian train cars. It aims to compare how politeness is expressed and in what situations or contexts politeness patterns are formulated on public signs in mobile public space, specifically inside Japanese and Indonesian train cars. This research is conducted under the framework of Linguistic Landscape approach, involving 36 photos of train cars signs in Japanese (19 photos) and in Indonesian (17 photos). This descriptive qualitative study analyzes signs by involving three types of public signs, including prohibitions, warnings, and instructions. The research results in some findings as follows. First, politeness marker in Japanese in any types of public signs of train cars involves the expressions kudasai or 'please' while that in Indonesian includes the use of the prefix 'di-' and the addition of lexical item of 'Mohon'. Second, in Japanese train cars signs, direct expressions appear almost in all types of signs but still using politeness, and explicitness is applied based on the situational needs of the signs, rather than the types of the signs. Similarly, in Indonesian train car signs, direct expressions appear in all types of signs and all signs use two types of politeness markers (lexical item of 'mohon' and the prefix 'di-'). The study found that he degree of politeness in sign expressions varies depending on the situation. Signs indicating danger or threats are typically less polite but more explicit, while those in regular areas are more polite but less explicit. This variation is evident in warning and instructional signs where the severity of the situation dictates the level of politeness and explicitness.

Word Formation Processes in the Context of Social Media Discourse: A Case of Chuka University Students

The social media discourse is a hybrid of both written text and spoken discourse and therefore exhibits unique linguistic features that researchers can explore. This paper reveals the new dynamics of word formation processes in the social media discourse context, which is apparently a new genre. Morphological processes have in the past been analyzed in the context of spoken and written discourse. However, due to the evolution of the social media discourses that emanate from the communications that is mediated by divergent media platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp, Instagrams and twitter, there is a need to shed light on how language is used in social media. This paper focuses on one aspect of such usage; how words are formed in the social media milieu. This paper therefore analyses the morphological processes drawing from Chuka University students’ social media discourse on WhatsApp platform. Students exhibits similar language usage due to the fact that they share a lot in common as a speech community. The paper therefore utilizes the social network theory to show how the interactants exploits the linguistic artifacts available at their social media network to interact meaningfully. Particularly, the focus is on the morphological processes that are evident in their interactions. The research design used is descriptive and the approach to data analysis is qualitative. The data used to inform this paper is drawn from the researcher’s thesis (2019). The findings revealed that students’ social media discourse results in the formation of new lexical items, use of symbols, Arabic numerals and letters to represent morphemes or words that are used in their day-to-day interactions. Similarly, morphological processes such as compounding, blending, clipping, borrowing, abbreviations and acronyms are common in the students’ social media discourse.

Some or Other: Partitive Disanaphors Across Languages

Abstract We present a cross-linguistically robust pattern of polyfunctionality between indefinite, partitive, and disanaphoric (‘another’) use of a single lexical item. In examining the connection between these different uses, we argue that a uniform semantics underlies all of them. We employ the salience theory of definiteness, with the specific implementation in a dynamic semantics with choice functions, to model the full spectrum of the attested uses without invoking implicit variables. The core meaning is the partitive implication, whereas the indefinite and the discourse-familiar disanaphoric readings are underspecified in the semantics and are argued to be additional construals conditioned by discourse factors. The partitive meaning, however, is shown itself to be subject to variable pragmatic packaging across languages, from being a part of the truth conditions to a postsupposition.

Exploring the Lexical Influence of Arabic on Bahasa Indonesia: Phonetically Transcribed

The influence of one language on another is a common phenomenon, and given that Arabic is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world, it is not surprising that it has influenced other languages. One such language is Bahasa Indonesia, which is spoken in Indonesia, one of the most populous nations in the world. There appears to be a lack of comprehensive analyses on the lexical influence of Arabic on Bahasa Indonesia. Such an analysis is an essential linguistic aspect that needs to be highlighted. Thus, this study aims to investigate the extent of the linguistic impact of Arabic on Bahasa Indonesia, specifically focusing on the lexicon. This research gathered data from twelve native speakers of Bahasa Indonesia, aged between 19 and 34, who were asked to produce Arabic lexical items. All Arabic loanwords in the data were identified and phonetically transcribed using International Phonetic Alphabet symbols. The findings revealed that Arabic has significantly impacted Bahasa Indonesia, enriching its lexicon in various domains, particularly in the religious domain, as well as in academic, political, and everyday language. The study concludes that Arabic has notably contributed to the development of Bahasa Indonesia’s vocabulary and recommends further research on other linguistic aspects such as semantics, phonology, or morphology.

How do students translate? A study of the translation process from student perspectives at Key Stage 3

Abstract Achieving proficiency in reading Latin is the stated aim of nearly every Latin course the world over. However, very little research has been devoted to how beginner students attempt to process Latin when it is placed in front of them for the first time. This paper aims to fill this gap, based on a study of students still relatively close to the start of their Latin journeys. I found that they tend to read Latin sentences in their original order, breaking them down into individual lexical items, and trying to discern their meaning by looking for similarities with words they already know. They will usually skip over words they do not recognise, returning to them later. This suggests that, as they become more familiar with Latin vocabulary and grammar, and so long as they are not taught to read in a different order, they will continue to read Latin in the order it is written. There is, however, a perception among many of the students that grammar is difficult, and so they tend to overly rely on context and common sense instead. Going forward, I would try to ensure my students become more confident with their grammar, as context can sometimes lead them astray. However, it is clear that, rather than just giving them tables and lists to learn, they need as much exposure to the grammatical forms ‘in the wild’ as possible, to promote ease of recognition.

Translanguaging Influenced Writing in Different Languages: A Case of Multilingual Students at Secondary Education in Sri Lanka

Researching aspects of multilingualism has attracted growing interest among scholars. However, such studies have less explored how translanguaging (TL) influences writing in multiple languages. This study considered essays written by three students in secondary education in Sri Lanka, using their first language (L1/Tamil), second language (L2/English), and third language (L3/Sinhala). The study aims to comprehend how TL practices have influenced their writing and report on the reflections of the students and their teachers on TL in writing. A comprehensive qualitative analysis of the data revealed that TL practices such as the use of lexical items from students’ L2, following similar strategies for writing and the use of previously learnt information and writing knowledge have influenced the writing across languages. The findings from the interview data suggested that the student writers sensed uneasiness towards TL in writing as such practices were not recognised as legitimate and that the teachers did not favour TL in writing even though they were lenient towards TL in speaking. The implications for the education of multilingual students are also discussed.

Marina Tsvetaeva’s Poem «An Attempt at Jealousy»: a Comparative Analysis of Three Italian Translations

The aim of the paper is to analyse the translation strategies of three Italian translators (Pietro Antonio Zveteremich, Serena Vitale, Marilena Rea) who at different times addressed Marina Tsvetaeva’s poem «An Attempt at Jealousy». First of all, they considered the peculiarities of conveying the semantic potential of the text as expressed by lexical items. Translation is an arduous combination of meaning (implication of meanings) and structure (speech expression, Tsvetaeva’s original syntax, rhymes, alliteration, etc.). The aim of a translation strategy is to convey the meaning of the original text as appropriately as possible, although it is not easy to convey the rich metaphors and the «twists» and «distortions» of Tsvetaeva’s syntax in another language. The conclusion is that in all three translations the general meaning of Tsvetaeva’s poem has been preserved. Moreover, Vitale and Rea’s versions convey the significant sound component of Tsvetaeva’s texts. If Zveteremich’s translation strategy can be called a «formalist translation», Vitale and Rea’s translations convey not only the literal meaning of the original, but also the «subtext» (i.e. carry out an artistic and aesthetic function).

Qui parle de qui/de quoi ? Vers la représentation de la source de lʼinformation dans les patois du Dacoroumain

The paper aims at presenting the grammaticalization/pragmaticalization processes as well as the semantic and functional behavior of certain lexical items in Romanian, such as: cică ( zice că „it is said that”), cea că ( zice că „it is said that”), ceancă ( ziceam că „I said that”), oz(â)că ( o zâs că „he/she said that”) and ozâncă ( o fi zâcând că „he/she maybe says that”). In fact, we are going to highlight that all these words configure in the spoken Romanian language and in particular in its dialectal register, a real microsystem of marking indirect citational evidentiality, while updating the tripartite distinction proposed by Willet (1988, p. 96) between: Second-hand evidence (hearsay) (ceancă) vs. Third-hand evidence (hearsay) (oz(â)că, ozâncă) vs. Information from the folklore (cică, ce că, cea că). Furthermore, all these discursive units found most often in the Oltenian sub-dialect of Dacoromanian and, in particular, in the patois of Oltenia area, implement a model of grammati¬ca¬lization and pragmaticalization, obtained by the combination of a dicendi verb agglutinated with the conjunction că „that”, extremely productive not only in Romanian, but also in other Romance languages (see, for example, Popescu & Duță 2023). In this context, our empirical and analytical approach, situated at the interface of linguistic pragmatics and dialectology, is composed of two large parts (except the introductory segment and the final considerations): (i) a first part which outlines the theoretical framework in the area of evidentiality and describes the model of grammaticalization/pragmaticalization of the lexical units of our research, also regarded from a Romance typological perspective and (ii) a second part which analyzes the semantic and functional behavior of these five words, while categorizing their uses and their discursive values according to the theoretical framework presented above.

Word learning tasks as a window into the triggering problem for presuppositions

In this paper, we show that native speakers spontaneously divide the complex meaning of a new word into a presuppositional component and an assertive component. These results argue for the existence of a productive triggering algorithm for presuppositions, one that is not based on alternative lexical items nor on contextual salience. On a methodological level, the proposed learning paradigm can be used to test further theories concerned with the interaction of lexical properties and conceptual biases.

EPS mid-career prize: An integrated framework for the learning, recognition and interpretation of words.

In this article, I review the evidence on the involvement of sleep and consolidation in word learning and processing during language comprehension, focusing on implications for theory. The theoretical basis for the review is a complementary systems account of word learning involving flexible (hippocampal) and stable (cortical) pathways to lexical knowledge. I argue that the accumulated data are consistent with a role for both pathways in both learning and recognition of lexical items, with sleep and consolidation supporting the transfer of recent experience between the pathways. The level of involvement of each pathway is dependent on key factors, such as consistency with prior knowledge in the case of learning, and reliance on context and/or automaticity in the case of recognition. As a consequence, the notion of a mental lexicon cannot really be restricted to just the listener's stable knowledge about words: flexible knowledge and recent experiences are also important. Furthermore, I argue that the flexible pathway plays a critical role even in the absence of new lexical items. The available evidence suggests that this pathway encodes (and potentially consolidates) recent linguistic experiences, providing potential benefits to interpretation of subsequent language and the long-term retention of knowledge. In conclusion, I propose that a dual-pathway account incorporating both flexibility and stability is necessary to explain the learning, recognition, and interpretation of words.

Analysis of specialized sports-related anglicisms

The aim of this study is to provide updated evidence of the use of non-adapted, adapted and false sports-related anglicisms in the European Spanish press. Specifically, this piece of research attempts to unveil technical/semi-technical English borrowings and to explore the pragmatic functions of these English lexical units in the current digital Spanish newswire. The method consisted of examining eight different media by using the constantly updating database of anglicisms ‘Observatorio Lázaro’ throughout a period of 9 months. A sample of 130 English lexical items was collected and subjected to an in-depth qualitative and descriptive analysis. Each borrowing was looked up in DAD ‒the most recent dictionary of sports-related English lexical items in Spanish‒ and was illustrated by a real example of its use in context excerpted from present-day Spanish newspapers. Terminology associated to a broad spectrum of specific sports –such as golf, basketball, rugby, cycling, etc.– was delved into. Results show that, while some terms have no connection to the rest of borrowings, many of them can be grouped according to certain parameters. Considering pragmatic functions, the use of some anglicisms proved not to be random but to respond to news reporters’ and journalists’ purposes. The study concludes that the pervasive influence exerted by English on Spanish concerning technical/semi-technical sports anglicisms remains in full force and effect nowadays, as this impact affects the vocabulary of a wide variety of sports games and exercises.

The Influence of the L1 on L2 Collocation Processing in Tamil-English Bilingual Children

This study examines the influence of Tamil (L1) on the processing of English (L2) collocations during reading for Tamil-English bilingual children. Building on existing research in formulaic language, we used an online processing tool to investigate whether cross-linguistic transfer can be extended beyond single lexical items to collocations in bilingual children, a population that is underrepresented in this research area. Fifty-eight children aged 9–10 years from a school in Chennai, India, took part. Using self-paced reading, children’s reading times were measured for both congruent (with equivalent in L2) and incongruent (without equivalent in L2) English collocations embedded in short passages. There were two reading modes (single and chunk), which allowed reading times for the whole collocations and the individual words of the collocations to be examined. Results showed that children read congruent collocations more quickly than incongruent collocations in both modes. For congruent collocations, children read the second word more quickly than the first word, but the reverse was true for incongruent collocations. These results suggest that the L1 (Tamil) is activated during the processing stage of reading English collocations for Tamil-English bilingual children in this context.

Pengaruh kepercayaan dan kearifan tempatan terhadap amalan perubatan tradisional masyarakat Kadazandusun [The influence of local beliefs and wisdom on traditional medicine practices of the Kadazandusun community

This study aims to identify the influence and belief of local wisdom in the traditional medical practices of the Kadazandusun community in Sabah. The research methodology used is a qualitative field study and data is collected from informants who are identified and reside in several districts in Sabah. An instrument that is an individual interview method (in-depth interview) through recording. The researcher obtains information from the respondent through the village head. They are traditional medicine practitioners who are a reference in the village based on their expertise in terms of the local beliefs and wisdom of the supporting community. The results of the study found that local beliefs and wisdom from previous ancestors contribute to the knowledge and information of traditional medical practices that have been inherited by the supporting community from generation to generation. The implications of the study, the effectiveness of the traditional medical methods that were inherited caused the supporting community to believe that the medical practice is still practiced to this day. In conclusion, skills in the method of preparing medicines from plants as well as the ability to interpret certain meanings can be used for traditional medicinal purposes. Through the study, it is expected that with the existence of several Kadazandusun language lexical items such as sogit (fine according to custom), bobolian (shaman), kombura (white chicken), sunduan (spirit) and so on help to form sources of terms in the Malay language as well as in various fields of knowledge knowledge related to the life of today's society such as animal husbandry, agriculture, nature and animals, plants, carpentry and so on.

The Semantics of Happiness and Joy in the Italian Language

Abstract A number of contemporary researchers have proposed considering happiness and joy as distinct phenomena and theoretical constructs. However, there is as yet insufficient information regarding whether the theoretical and empirical arguments for distinguishing happiness from joy also apply to folk representations of these concepts. This work presents two studies in which Italian speakers performed a free-listing task asking them to list words semantically equivalent to the Italian words felicità (happiness) (Study 1) and gioia (joy) (Study 2). A comparison between the two studies revealed that the Italian concepts of happiness and joy had 49 lexical items in common, 32 of which related to emotions. Interestingly, 11 of the latter ranked in the top 10 cognitive salience indexes obtained from both Study 1 and Study 2. It is argued that the semantic similarities between the two words examined – felicità and gioia – should not overshadow the meaning nuances distinguishing them.

A database of ambiguous Chinese characters with measures for meaning dominance and meaning balance

Abstract Chinese characters hold great potential to help inform and enrich psycholinguistic research on lexical ambiguity as a large portion of them are ambiguous in nature with meaning varying from context to context. This report presents a psycholinguistic database that contains over 2000 characters with normative measures for meaning dominance and meaning balance, that is, the relative frequency of each meaning associated with a target character and the degree of balance across the meanings of the character. The measurement process takes advantage of the fact that, in Chinese, generating words containing a target character is the most convenient way to specify and disambiguate character meanings. Character meanings stored in ordinary people’s mental lexicon are identified based on the words, along with a small portion of meaning descriptions, listed by over 900 native speakers. The measures of meaning dominance and meaning balance for the characters are derived from computing the relative frequencies of the meanings. Potential research and practical applications of the database, as a valuable tool, to enhance our understanding of the acquisition, representation, and processing of ambiguous lexical items are discussed.