Lexical Variants Research Articles

Lexical Variants in Pashto: A Comparative Study Accompanied in Paktia and Nangrahar

The aim this study is to investigate the lexical variations in Pashto spoken in Paktia and Nangrahar. The linguistic variations of age and region were considered to find out the lexical differences in Spoken Pashto both targeted provinces. However, to accomplish the aims of the investigation, two data sets were center of the information for this comparative study of the lexical variations. The main data were collected by open-ended questionnaire to get the secondary data. For getting the objectives of the study, a questionnaire was spread out among the randomly selected participants, the 50 participants were selected from both targeted places. Vocally managed questionnaire was also led in order to get the purpose of the study. Although, the observation of the speakers was another research tool. The examination of the collected data from both study tools showed that there are prominent differences in spoken Pashto in Paktia and Nangrahar from the view point of lexical variation. However, from the observation it was decided that there are certain expletives associated in both targeted places.

Exploring Networks of Lexical Variation in Russian Sign Language.

When describing variation at the lexical level in sign languages, researchers often distinguish between phonological and lexical variants, using the following principle: if two signs differ in only one of the major phonological components (handshape, orientation, movement, location), then they are considered phonological variants, otherwise they are considered separate lexemes. We demonstrate that this principle leads to contradictions in some simple and more complex cases of variation. We argue that it is useful to visualize the relations between variants as graphs, and we describe possible networks of variants that can arise using this visualization tool. We further demonstrate that these scenarios in fact arise in the case of variation in color terms and kinship terms in Russian Sign Language (RSL), using a newly created database of lexical variation in RSL. We show that it is possible to develop a set of formal rules that can help distinguish phonological and lexical variation also in the problematic scenarios. However, we argue that it might be a mistake to dismiss the actual patterns of variant relations in order to arrive at the binary lexical vs. phonological variant opposition.

Lexical Variation in Regional Modern Standard Arabic

Adapting the notions of regional Modern Standard Arabic (Ibrahim 2009; Ryding 2010) and gradience in acceptability judgments (Papadopoulou, Leivada, and Pavlou 2014), this paper teases apart educated native speakers’ judgements and lexical preferences in an intricate case of lexical collocations. In this case, one of the two co-occurring words or constituents has two variants rendered in different morphological forms, but they are derived from the same root. The results of an acceptability judgment task showed that educated Saudi Arabian speakers tended to disfavour lexical variants used in Egyptian newspapers and overwhelmingly opted for the variants used in their region when forced to do so. It is argued that although the lexicon of Standard Arabic is relatively stable and governed by substantial regularities and conformities to standard morphological rules, still regional varieties can be differentiated. The dynamic nature of Standard Arabic synchronically and its interaction with Arabic dialects in different regions is discussed.

Cyril of Jerusalem catechetical lectures: To linguistic and textual history of the 13th century Tolstovskii manuscript

The article presents a study of catechetical lectures by Cyril of Jerusalem in the Tolstovskii sbornik (collection) from the 13th century (RNB, F.p.I.39) in comparison with four manuscripts from the 11th–17th centuries. Considering lexical, derivational, and grammatical variations, the authors conclude that the Tolstovskii manuscript has much more archaic features in common with three representatives of the MSS from the “family Sin” (they are three MSS from 11th–16th centuries). At the same time, it looks closer to the manuscript from the 16th–17th centuries (RSL, f. 256, N.P.Rumiantsev collection, no. 194) at the grammatical level. Simultaneously, the grammatical commonality of the Tolstovskii and Rumiantsev manuscripts is also not associated with the later editing but better reflects the original readings of translation than the manuscripts from the “family Sin.” Along with general readings, the Tolstovskii copy is characterized by many special readings that do not coincide with any MSS involved in the analysis. Some of these readings better convey the Greek original text, while others, on the contrary, reflect the result of later distortions. The manuscript does not contain consistent “Preslav” revision traces, although one can sporadically find some East Bulgarian lexemes in it (since many of them are also present in other copies, one cannot consider them as a result of later revisions). Nevertheless, the archaic Cyril and Methodius’ translation layer, both in vocabulary and grammar, turns out to be predominant. Thus, the Tolstovskii manuscript should be recognized as the representative of a particular tradition of Cyril’s catechetical text, far from both the “family Sin” and the Rumiantsev copy, as far as it preserves a large number of archaic features in its language.

Multi-Lingual Language Variety Identification using Conventional Deep Learning and Transfer Learning Approaches

Language variety identification tends to identify lexical and semantic variations in different varieties of a single language. Language variety identification helps build the linguistic profile of an author from written text which can be used for cyber forensics and marketing purposes. Investigating previous efforts for language variety identification, we hardly find any study that experiments with transfer learning approaches and/or performs a thorough comparison of different deep learning approaches on a range of benchmark datasets. So, to bridge this gap, we propose transfer learning approaches for language variety identification tasks and perform an extensive comparison of them with deep learning approaches on multiple varieties of four widely spoken languages, i.e., Arabic, English, Portuguese, and Spanish. This research has treated this task as a binary classification problem (Portuguese) and multi-class classification problem (Arabic, English, and Spanish). We applied two transfer learning Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers (BERT), Universal Language Model Fine-tuning (ULMFiT), three deep learning-Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN), Bidirectional Long Short Term Memory (Bi-LSTM), Gated Recurrent Units (GRU), and an ensemble approach for identifying different varieties. A thorough comparison between the approaches suggests that the transfer learning based ULMFiT model outperforms all other approaches and produces the best accuracy results for binary and multi-class language variety identification tasks.

Метафоричний модус англомовного лінгвоетичного концепту dignity

The article is devoted to the study of the metaphorical modus of the English-language ethical concept DIGNITY. The aim of the study is to highlight the metaphorical range of the analyzed concept. The article outlines the boundaries of the three main dimensions of the concept: logical, conceptual and structural. Particular attention is paid to the distinction between the terms “concept” and “category”, the relationship between which is nonlinear. On the one hand, the category includes similar concepts. Moreover, the classifiers of the category are categorical domains, which in relation to another frame of reference – the conceptosphere, are independent concepts. On the other hand, the concept is broader than the category of the same name, as it includes those “optional” features for the category that may undergo bidirectional metaphorical rethinking. The article substantiates the conclusion that the category is a logical dimension of the concept existence. This conceptual dimension exists in the linguistic picture of the world in the form of a fixed and relatively stable information gestalt. It is noted that such stability is possible only in static existence, i.e. in the category representation in the mental lexicon and its verbalization within the language system, which is not characteristic of its real unfolding in the form of a concept during its actualization in speech. This unfolding of the category takes it out of the logical dimension into the conceptual one, transforming it from a category into a concept. In addition, the specificity of the studied abstract concept is determined. It is established that the subject of classification of ethical categories are not material objects but phenomena that have an ideal, speculative origin and are manifested in relation to other mental spaces. Also, the article defines the foundations of the theory of conceptual metaphor. It is noted that the basis of the conceptual dimension is cross-domain projections, which are based on metaphorical transfer due to the associative connections that arise between the elements of the conceptual grid (frame), which is part of a concept. The article highlights the conceptual parcels based on the analysis of lexical and semantic variants of its representative unit dignity. The metaphorical range of the DIGNITY concept is highlighted and source domains are identified, the features of which are projected onto the target domain. The frequency of involvement of individual parcels of the concept in metaphorical mappings is determined. The categorical relations of DIGNITY conceptual domains are analyzed.

Imagery as the most economical and optimal mechanism for updating lexical and semantic variants in the process of communication

Imagery as the most economical and optimal mechanism for updating lexical and semantic variants in the process of communication

Gustativne metafore i poređenja u romanu Epitaf carskog gurmana Veljka Barbierija

The novel Epitaph of the Imperial Gourmand is one of the first dystopian novels in Croatian literature. It is written in the form of a satirical diary, and the author, using various genres of gastronomic literary tradition, creates an atmosphere of hopelessness, powerlessness and absolute control of the government. The Ministry of Public Order and Morality supervises, prosecutes and bans the purchase of groceries and cooking for a clerk in a paper factory. The clerk, main character, deals the last blow to the authorities by committing suicide by consuming the most delicious poisonous dish prepared by the recipe of a famous Roman chef of similar destiny. In this way, Barbieri sends us a message about the inalienability of freedom of choice, but also about the timelessness, spacelessness and ubiquity of repressive societies. The topic of the paper are gustatory metaphors and comparisons, the mechanisms of their origin and their function in the novel. Metaphors are studied following Lakoff's and Johnson's theory of conceptual metaphors. Since metaphors are the basis of comparisons, it was necessary to include them in the research. The focus is on lexical variations of metaphors and comparisons in relation to the standard forms that Barbieri uses as a means of emphasizing pleasure and opposing the (gastronomic) uniformity of the regime at the language level.

Kazimiero Jauniaus Lietùviškas Kalbomõkslis. Baltiko padangese (1897) – Jono Jablonskio Lietuviškos kalbos gramatikos (1901) šaltinis

LIETÙVIŠKAS KALBOMÕKSLIS. BALTIKO PADANGESE (1897) BY KAZIMIERAS JAUNIUS – THE SOURCE OF LIETUVIŠKOS KALBOS GRAMATIKA (1901) BY JONAS JABLONSKIS S u m m a r y The main source of Jonas Jablonskis’ Lietuviškos kalbos gramatika (Grammar of the Lithuanianlanguage, Tilsit, 1901 [JaG]), signed under the pseudonym of Petras Kriaušaitis, is PetrasAvižonis’ Liėtùviška Gramatiklė (Small Lithuanian Grammar, [Petersburg, 1898] [AvG]). However, Jablonskis significantly supplemented AvG by adding the chapters on preposition, conjunction, interjection, syntax and orthography. He also separated the descriptions of noun and adjective, added chapters on phonetics, pronoun, numeral, verb, used Lithuanian language terms. Jablonskis did not indicate other sources in JaG, fragments of the text taken from other works are not identified as such. However, later Jablonskis wrote that he also used Kazimieras Jaunius’ Lietùviškas kalbomõkslis. Baltiko padangese (Lithuanian Grammar. In the Baltic Skies, [Dorpat,] 1897 [JaunK]). The aim of this study is to determine the relationship between these two grammars. Some of the material for JaG was undoubtedly taken over directly from JaunK, for it was not present in AvG or other grammars that Jablonskis could have used. However, Avižonis also used JaunK, so some fragments entered JaG through AvG, rather than directly from JaunK. Since Jablonskis took over AvG almost in its entirety, there is no doubt such fragments of JaunK had previously been incorporated in AvG only to later appear in JaG. All the more so as JaunK’s statements and examples are equally reformulated, supplemented or abbreviated in AvG and JaG. The article analyses only the material that was taken over to JaG directly from JaunK and that was not present in AvG. It is much more difficult to identify the source of the fragments which are found in both JaunK and Friedrich Kurschat’ Grammatik der Littauischen Sprache (Grammar of the Lithuanian language, Halle, 1876 [KG]). It is not always clear whether Jablonskis took it directly from KG or through JaunK. In such cases, the immediate context is considered. When not only the idea of KG but also more material, adjacent sentences, are taken over from the same section of JaunK, the path of the fragment is considered to be KG → JaunK → JaG. The connection between JaunK and JaG is also evidenced by the uniform wording of sentences. In his grammar, Jablonskis stated that he supported character <tš> [č], proposed by Jaunius, as well as orthography of nom. pl. of i, u stems with endings ‑įs, ‑ųs. JaunK could also have influenced the spelling of the numerals trįs ‘three’, keturiasdešimtas–devyniasdešimtas ‘fortieth—ninetieth’. Jablonskis used Jaunius’ terms būdvardis ‘adjective’, veiksmažodis ‘verb’, prieveiksmis ‘adverb’,jausmažodis ‘interjection’; linksnis ‘case’, linksniavimas ‘declination’, dvilypuotieji būdvardžiai ‘pronominal adjectives’, tikrieji ‘quantitative’ and paeiliniai ‘ordinal’ (numerals), sakomasis būdas ‘mood’, savyveiksmis ‘reflexive verb, form’, nestati, nestačioji kalba ‘indirect speech’. Fragments of JaunK about the concept and types of sounds have been taken over to the JaG. JaG material on consonant assimilation also has connection with JaunK. Jablonskis also used JaunK while preparing the chapter of morphology. There are connections in the definition of adjective, the description of category of number of nouns, pronominal adjectives and gradation of adjectives. There are also identical statements about the declension of numerals and their semantic groups in JaunK and JaG. According to JaunK, the definition of the pronoun was formulated in JaG. Jablonskis also used JaunK to describe verbs, adverbs, and interjection. In the chapter of the syntax, the influence of JaunK can be seen in the description of the use of participants. Jablonskis used the linguistic material, examples of JaunK. Jablonskis used the data of dialects, mostly Samogitians, provided by JaunK. Comments on the grades of adjectives, variants of pronouns, forms of future tense, use of adverbs, as well as lexical variants are related to JaunK. In summary, the direct influence of JaunK can be registered in slightly less than a quarter (48 out of 224) of JaG’s paragraphs.

ABOUT SOME ASPECTS OF FORMING THE SOCIOLINGUISTIC COMPETENCY OF TECHNICAL UNIVERSITY STUDENTS AT THE LESSONS OF ENGLISH

Statement of the problem. At present, the teaching of a foreign language at a technical university rests on a competency-based approach. An important role in the linguistic education of the future specialists plays the formation of the students’ sociolinguistic competency, which is traditionally included in the structure of the sociocultural competency according to the national methodology.The formation of the sociolinguistic competency of the technical university students at the lessons of English has its distinctive features and is associated with introducing them to the culture and history of the country of the studied language, working with authentic professionally oriented materials, studying the norms of the native speakers’ communication behavior, the phenomena of territorially and socially determined linguistic variability. Results. The research that has been carried out gives reason to argue that the students’ typical mistakes and difficulties associated with the choice of the geographically determined phonetic variants and the geographically and socially determined lexical variants in the process of communication indicate that the sociolinguistic competency of the students is formed insufficiently. Conclusion. The focus of the teacher’s attention on the formation of the sociolinguistic competency in the educational process, explaining to the students the nature of the language variation phenomena, analyzing the reasons for the ambiguity of the nomination in each special case help the students to successfully overcome the problems of choosing a language variant in the communication process, and to become more confident users of English.

THE NAMES FOR SNIPE BIRD (GALLINAGO GALLINAGO) IN UDMURT DIALECTS

The article discusses the Udmurt dialect names of the snipe bird (Gallinago gallinago), which is from the snipe family of the Charadriiformes order. The main sources are field dialect materials of the Laboratory of Linguistic Mapping and Historical Lexicology of Udmurt State University, collected within the project “Dialectological Atlas of the Udmurt language”. In this paper methods of linguo-geographical description, structural-semantic and etymological analysis of words are used. Udmurt names for snipe appeared during the period of independent development of the language. In the Udmurt dialects, the most frequently recorded word is n'urtaka , formed from the n'urvyltaka form due to contraction. We believe that it is the most ancient name for the snipe. The main motivation used in the snipe nomination is a sound similar to the bleating of a ram, which is emitted by a displaying male snipe. Most of the lexical variants have a two-component structure formed from original and borrowed nouns. The first component is an attributive noune. It indicates the habitat / nesting place of the bird ( n'ur ‘marshy’, muvyr ‘terrestrial’), characterizes its nocturnal lifestyle ( uy ‘nocturnal’), expresses belonging to the wild nature ( lud , kyr ‘wild’) and the class Birds ( in' ‘heavenly’). The second component is the name of domestic animals ( taka ‘ram’, ketchtaka ‘goat’, kaza ‘she-goat’). Typological similarity of the snipe nomination processes is observed in some related and unrelated languages. Such coincidence of motivation and semantic structures of words is due to the biological characteristics of this bird.

Интернационализм «аванс» в русском и болгарском языках: сопоставительный анализ

The article examines the functioning of the international word "аванс", formed from the French "avance" in the Russian and Bulgarian languages. By comparing the existing semantic capacity of the concept of "аванс" in the Russian, Bulgarian and French languages, the article reveals the nationally specific components of the meanings of these lexical units. The correlation of the secondary meanings recorded in the Slavic languages in question with the accompanying set of lexical and semantic variants of the original French word is established. The authors come to the conclusion that the translation of the international word “аванс” from Russian into Bulgarian in certain contexts requires the method of concretization, while the reverse translation requires the method of generalization.

Variations in the Maguindanaon Language

People who live in the same region and speak the same language still vary in some aspects of their language in terms of pronunciation, lexicon, morphology, and syntax. This qualitative study described the phonological, morphological, and lexical variations of the Maguindanaon language among the ten Maguindanao municipalities. Purposive sampling, in-depth interviews, and focus group discussions were employed. The variations occurred through phonemic changes and other phonological and morphological processes. Phonological processes consisted of vowel lengthening and deletion. In the phonological variation, it was observed that there were phonemic changes from one dialect to another. For example, there was a phoneme /r/ to /l/change where the phoneme /r/ was most likely to occur in Kabuntalan like /biru/, /kurIt/, and /kɘmɅr/ while the rest of the dialects were /bilu/, /kuIɪt/, and /kɘmɅl/ respectively. Findings show that lexical and morphological variations also existed in the Maguindanaon language. Results revealed that the variation in phonology, morphology, and lexicon was associated primarily with geographic distribution.

OED and EDD: comparison of the printed and online versions

Abstract This paper revisits the issue of the opaque interrelationship between the English Dialect Dictionary (EDD) and the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). While work on OED3, the online version, has been in progress since 2000, the EDD was digitised in three phases between 2006 and 2019. EDD 3.0, with its sophisticated interface, was launched in April 2019. This paper ventures to question the OED’s policy of providing or omitting source evidence for some of its data. After a survey of the unequal aims and structures of the two dictionaries from their beginnings down to the end of OED2 (1989), the focus of the paper is on their relationship with regard to the two online versions, first as described by recent OED editors, and then by examining the interfaces. A quantitative analysis of the lexical variants attributed to Worcestershire in the two dictionaries is used as a test case to show that OED3 has borrowed more data from EDD (Online) than the OED entries attest and the ranking-list of sources misleadingly suggests. The paper critically analyses the OED’s practice of providing source evidence only for quotations, but generally not for (dialectal) variants.

Archaic and innovative phenomena in the case paradigms of the Erzya dialects in the Volga region and the Southern Urals

Introduction. The modern differentiation of the Erzya dialects in the Volga region and the Southern Urals is the result of a long historical development. The migration of the Mordovians from their former places of residence contributed to their formation. The fact that in these regions the Erzya lived isolated from the rest of the Mordovians and contacted directly with peoples having different patterns of language contributed to preserving archaic phenomena of the base language and appearing innovative components in the structure of the dialects under study. The purpose of the work is to identify and describe archaic phenomena and innovations in the case paradigms of the study area. Materials and Methods. The article is based on the field materials collected by the authors during linguistic expeditions in the places of concentration of the Erzya in the territory of the Volga region and the Southern Urals. The dialectal material was collected based on the questionnaire, reflecting the lexical, phonetic and morphological variations of linguistic phenomena. The descriptive and comparative historical methods were used to analyze language material. Results and Discussion. The study of the linguistic material of the Volga region and the Southern Urals showed the differences in the case paradigms of the noun from the corresponding paradigms of the Erzya codified languages and other Mordovian dialects. In analysis showed that in the paradigms of the definite declension singular, there are different sets of cases and there is no single structure of word forms. Some paradigms are archaic, consistent, and logical. In the composition of others, new formations have developed, homonymous case suffixes and postpositional constructions have appeared. Conclusion. The main dialect types of the Erzya languages were developed before the migration processes to the eastern territories of the modern residence of the Erzya. The isolated development of the dialects of the Volga region and the Southern Urals made it possible both to preserve archaic phenomena in the paradigms of the definite declension and to develop new formations uncharacteristic for them.

Dai's Humor Intelligence in Preach: Cognitive Linguistic and Inquisitive Semantic

This research describes the humor strategy that is realized by the preachers in conveying the syiar of Islam to the congregation. The intelligence of the preachers in using lexical variations in the elements of their da'wah aims to enliven a warm atmosphere during the da'wah process to arouse their religiosity and open new views to the congregation that humor requires cognitive intelligence to be able to understand the situation and social life of the community. The function of humor is presented by preachers in their preaching as a means of conveying orders, advice, appeals, criticisms and prohibitions on religious issues and social diseases. This research uses semantic inquiry theory. In humor, there is an implicit language that needs to be explored with inquiry semantic theory. The research method used qualitative descriptive with matching and agih techniques. The results showed that presenting a humor requires intelligence in processing sentences and intellectual experience in developing the da'wah's hasanah in preaching. The results showed that the lexical humor conveyed by the preachers was a social criticism and a community phenomenon that varied according to the situation during preaching (momentum). Humor is a figuristic amplifier of preaching in strengthening the intent and purpose of his preaching.

Connecting Taxonomic Backbones using Global Names Tools

Biodiversity taxonomy provides a means to organize information about living organisms into maintainable tree- or graph-like structures (taxonomic backbones). Taxonomy is tightly bound to biodiversity nomenclature—a collection of recommendations, rules and conventions for naming living organisms. Species are often considered to be the most important unit of taxonomy structures. Keeping scientific names of species and other taxa accurate and up to date are major challenges during creation and maintenance of large taxonomic backbones. Global Names Architecture (Global Names) is an initiative that developed tools and databases for detecting, parsing, and verifying scientific names. Verification tools also provide information about which taxonomic and nomenclatural resources contain information for a given scientific name. Taxonomic intelligence provided by resources aggregated by Global Names allows resolving of taxon names from different backbones, even if their "current" scientific names vary. Parsing of scientific names with GNparser allows for normalization of names, making them comparable. Fast name matching (reconciliation) and discovery of a taxonomic meaning (resolution) by GNverifier connects information from various resources. The most recently developed tools by Global Names provide name verification and taxon matching on an unprecedented scale. During this presentation we are going to describe Global Names tools and show how they can be used for reconciliation of lexical variants of scientific names, for extracting the authorship metadata, how names can be verified and resolved, and how data can be connected to a variety of biodiversity resources.

Biodiversity Heritage Library and Global Names: Successes, opportunities and the challenges for the future collaboration

The Biodiversity Heritage Library (BHL) is a major aggregator of biodiversity literature with more than 200,000 volumes. The Global Names Architecture (GNA) strives to develop and provide tools for finding, parsing and verifying scientific names. GNA and BHL have enjoyed 10 years of collaboration in the creation of a scientific names index for BHL. Such an index provides researchers with a means for finding data about more than a million species. Recently, BHL and GNA developed a workflow for the creation of an index that covers more than 50 million pages of BHL, and finds and verifies scientific names in less than a day. The unprecedented speed of the index creation opens an opportunity to dramatically increase its quality and reach. The following challenges can now be addressed. 1. Abbreviated names reconciliation. From 20% to 25% of all scientific names in BHL are abbreviated. It is much harder to reconcile and verify abbreviated names, because their specific epithets are not unique. We plan to reconcile the vast majority of such names via a statistical approach. 2. Linking of biodiversity publication titles with actual pages in BHL. Scientific names are closely connected to publications of original description, taxonomic treatments, and other usages. We plan to build algorithms for finding out how different lexical variants of the same publication reference can be disambiguated and connected to corresponding BHL pages. 3. Using taxonomic intelligence for finding information about species. According to our estimation, on average, there are three scientific names (historical and current) per taxon. Names of species often change over time as a result of misspellings, and homotypic or heterotypic synonymy. We plan to link outdated names with currently accepted names of taxa. This functionality provides all information about a taxon in BHL, no matter what names were used to reference the taxon at the time of publication. 4. Finding information about original descriptions of genera and species. For every species there is a publication with the original description. We want to create an index of species that are described in the publications aggregated by BHL. 5. Detection of species names in spite of "incorrect" capitalization. Previously, or in horticultural sources, specific epithets were often capitalized (e.g., Bulbophyllum Nocturnum), or for patronyms in which the species was named in honor of someone (e.g., Notiospathius Johnlennoni). We plan to detect names with non-standard capitalization of this sort. 6. Removal of false positives. Texts in Latin language, names of people, and geographical entities often create false positives that look like scientific names. Using machine learning techniques will allow us to detect and remove most of these errors from the names index. 7. Detection of the names of biodiversity scientists and geographical entities in texts. Finding names of biologists and geographical places in addition to scientific names would allow us to draw connections between these data and to create metadata demonstrating these links. We plan to add tools and algorithms for indexing person names and geographical names. In this talk I will present plans for a dramatic quality increase in the scientific name-finding algorithms, as well as an introduction of other elements that would enhance usability of BHL for its patrons.

Corpus-based approach to forming communication skills in the use of idioms

The paper presents a corpus-based approach to forming communication skills which has been widely accepted nowadays. The methodological apparatus of corpus linguistics is a promising tool for language learning. The purpose of the present research is to study the potential of the Tatar National Corpus in forming communication skills in the use of Tatar idioms. Corpus-based approach has many applications in language learning from extending teaching techniques to arousing learners’ curiosity and improving communication skills. Traditionally, idioms are considered to be fixed expressions, which have a meaning that is not immediately obvious from looking at the meanings of the parts. It has become evident over the past decades that all sorts of creative modifications of idioms are quite frequent and can be varied. Most idioms are not totally opaque. Thus, they are open to the corpus-based approach. Moreover, idioms are typically based on metaphors, and metaphors as mental images are easily modifiable. The native speakers adapt them, combine them and can change parts of them. Undoubtedly, a corpus presents an opportunity to learn the authenticity of the idioms, used in reality without somebody’s selection or previous interpretation. Learning a foreign language on the basis of corpus data allows students to analyze lexical, grammatical and syntactical variations of idioms, to comprehend their semantics, and explore new variants of idioms, unrecorded in dictionaries yet.

Lexical Variations in Pakistani English: A Case Study of the Novel Twilight in Delhi

The present study investigates the English language variations due to code-switching between L1 (Urdu) and L2 (English). It shows how language varies from culture to culture, religion to religion, and how these variations make language an independent variety. This research also investigates the role of Urdu language in the formation of Pakistani English. It is a corpus-based study. Methodology in the study is both qualitative and quantitative. A mixed approach has been employed. As a sample, a famous postcolonial novel “Twilight in Delhi” by Ahmed Ali has been selected. Analysis shows that the Pakistani native language has an effect on its culture on the English language. This research also investigates various sociolinguistics factors. It shows that the phenomenon of “Borrowing” is frequently used in the novel than compounding and hybridization because of the Islamic religion, historical and societal culture. Edibles are transferred from Urdu into English because they do not have their direct equivalents in English. The results also indicate that the usual use of Urdu words into English at the lexical level is property of Pakistani English and makes it an independent variety.