Linguistic Behavior Research Articles

Cognitive inhibition explains children’s production of medial wh-phrases

ABSTRACT Non-adult-like linguistic behavior in children is sometimes taken as evidence for endogenous factors that drive selection of grammatical features from the child’s hypothesis space of possible grammars. Analyses of English-acquiring children’s productions of medial wh-phrases exemplify this trend in particular. We provide an alternative account of these productions as performance errors arising from underdeveloped cognitive inhibition. We offer experimental evidence in favor of our failure of inhibition account. The results argue against treating these errors as reflecting incomplete or non-target acquisition of grammatical features. Instead, the results support a theory of how these errors arise and are subsequently purged from children’s productions that reduces to a theory of how cognitive inhibition develops during childhood.

Влияние гендера на речевое поведение офицеров командного состава иностранных армий в ситуациях профессионального общения (на материале английского, немецкого и норвежского языков)

The aim of the study is to find out the features of the linguistic and speech behaviour of the female and male military personnel who are the members of the highest command staff of the armed forces of the NATO bloc states. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time a study of gender-oriented communication strategies is conducted on the basis of interviews with senior officers of the US, German and Norwegian armies. Not only the general characteristics of their communicative style are considered, but also the degree of expressiveness of specific features, which, according to previous studies, are typical of the service men and women. As a result, the degree of the gender factor influence on the choice of language means in the considered communicative situations has been determined. The relationship between the service period and the expressiveness of features in speech that are typical of the military personnel of a certain gender has been established.

“Must” implies “can”

We consider the thorny issue of whether ascribing to an agent the obligation to φ implies that it is possible for the agent to φ. Traditionally, this issue has been interpreted as whether “ought” implies “can”. But another linguistic interpretation is available, namely, whether “must” implies “can” (MIC). We show that “must” does imply “can” via a convergent argument. First, we prove MIC from a well‐established theory of modality in natural language, namely, that proposed by Kratzer. Second, we present novel acceptability judgement studies showing that MIC predicts and explains the linguistic behaviour of native English speakers.

EHealth Engagement on Facebook during COVID-19: Simplistic Computational Data Analysis.

Understanding social media networks and group interactions is crucial to the advancement of linguistic and cultural behavior. This includes how people accessed advice on health during COVID-19 lockdown. Some people turned to social media to access information on health when other routes were curtailed by isolation rules, particularly among older generations. Facebook public pages, groups and verified profiles using keywords “senior citizen health”, “older generations”, and “healthy living” were analyzed over a 12-month period to examine engagement with social media promoting good mental health. CrowdTangle was used to source status updates, photo and video sharing information in the English language, which resulted in an initial 116,321 posts and 6,462,065 interactions. Data analysis and visualization were used to explore large datasets, including natural language processing for “message” content discovery, word frequency and correlational analysis as well as co-word clustering. Preliminary results indicate strong links to healthy aging information shared on social media, which showed correlations to global daily confirmed cases and daily deaths. The results can identify public concerns early on and address mental health issues among senior citizens on Facebook.

La préposition « vers » en chinois

This paper analyzes the syntactic behaviour of the preposition towards and its contextuel variants in Chinese (Standard Mandarin: wǎng往, xiàng向, cháo朝 ; Pekingese: wàng望 (蓦), chòng冲, bèn奔, etc.). These variants are not fully synonymous in all contexts, contrary to what is reported in grammars and in dictionaries. We first propose to differentiate their linguistic behaviour to distinguish two towards: a [+dynamic] towards and a [-dynamic] towards. We also show that they react differently in their preverbal or postverbal position. We finally study in detail the nature of the objects they govern, which led us to identify other fundamental differences between them.

Socio-psychological Perspective of Multilingualism and Bilingualism

The majority of the people in the world are multilingual. They use more than one language every day. Knowing more than one language or being bilingual has now become the necessity of the world. It also symbolizes many aspects of human emotions. Bilingualism and multilingualism are linguistic, psychological, and social behaviours, very complex and multidimensional. This paper focuses on the main challenges at the crossroads of bilingualism, multilingualism, and the acquisition of second languages. The development of personality may depend on the language a person speaks. It is also associated with some of the abilities of the human mind. Earlier researchers have concluded that a multilingual person has better reasoning and cognitive abilities than a normal person. A multilingual person is also a better decision-maker, and also there is less probability of being biased while making decisions. It has been also observed that control of attention and metalinguistic awareness also depend to some extent on the linguistic nature of a person. To verify those conclusions drawn from the theory or research work by some of the European researchers, primitive research work was done. A survey was done through a form to know what people think about this particular topic and whether they agree with those viewpoints or not. From the results, it can be concluded that the conclusions drawn by them are true to some extent and people also agree with those results.

Variability in the perception of race through voices and faces

Although perception of race is known to influence speech intelligibility, speech has often been studied without careful attention to this variability. It has been common to study language in an audio-only modality, which fails to capture the multimodal natures of language and person perception. We have developed a set of audiovisual study materials consisting of participants producing individual sentences selected from two different sets of standard materials. The corpus we have created is intentionally diverse with respect to racial self-report. However, there is extraordinary diversity in how persons who share a racial identification may present. The complex and variable relationship between physical features and the construction of social status demands that we reject reliance on self-reports when characterizing the diversity of our sample. In two experiments, participants viewed faces and listened to voices of people who contributed to the audiovisual corpus. The results allow us to explicitly characterize how the participants in the corpus may be racialized by observers, independent of their self-report. We argue that examining cognitive processes, which give rise to racialized and gendered perceptions, is foundational to advancing our understanding of speech perception in realistic environments with high degrees of variability in personal appearance and linguistic behavior.

Terms Used for Smallpox and Its Personification in Korean Shamanic Language

The history of the terms and expressions associated with smallpox offers evidence of semantic change and reflects both the internal and external worldviews of Korean people with regard to smallpox. In Korean shamanic language, smallpox is personified as gods known by various names with their own linguistic registers, personalities, and behaviors. The present paper first analyzes the semantic relationship between the terms used for smallpox and for smallpox gods, and argues that similarities in their meanings and in the characteristics of the disease were determining factors in the creation of the gods’ personalities. The second part of the paper discusses how possession is defined in relation to the personification of smallpox, the smallpox goddess, and the person afflicted.

사회언어학과 일본어교육

Even though the results of sociolinguistic researches are providing the direct materials of foreign language education, the results of sociolinguistic researches have not been reflected into the field of Japanese language education. Especially, the contrastive sociolinguistics that mostly researches the international comparison of linguistic behaviors is more deeply related to Japanese language education because the contrastive sociolinguistics could reveal differences in two languages that could not be examined in an individual language, and foreign learners make the most errors in this part. Thus, it would be necessary to actively reflect and converge the results of researches on contrastive sociolinguistics with Japanese language education. From this perspective, this paper introduces the representative results of researches in the field of contrastive sociolinguistics between Korean and Japanese, and also call for convergence with Japanese language education.

BEHAVIORISME DALAM PEMEROLEHAN KOSAKATA PADA ANAK 3-4 TAHUN MELALUI PERMAINAN NYANYIAN TRADISIONAL

This study aims to describe the types of vocabulary that appear in the language ofchildren aged 3-4 years through traditional games and songs at Sekadau Hulu, and in termsof psycholinguistic behaviorism. This study uses the theory of Psycholinguistic Behaviorism.The research method used is descriptive with a qualitative form. The data source of thisresearch is the speech of children aged 3-4 years which is obtained from traditional gamesand songs. Data collection techniques used in this study were observation, interview,conversational engagement, peer and note-taking techniques. The results of this studyconclude that aspects of linguistic behavior that can be observed directly and therelationship between stimuli (stimulus) and reactions (responses). There are four types ofvocabulary that emerge through the traditional games and songs of Sekadau Hulu Malayuin children aged 3-4 years, namely noun vocabulary, working vocabulary, charactervocabulary, and number vocabulary. There are four types of vacabulary that childrenacquire through traditional games, namely 13 object vocabularies, nine workingvocabularies, two number vocabularies, and two natural vocabularies. While the vocabularyacquired by children through traditional singing consists of four types of vocabulary, namely33 nouns, 11 working vocabulary, one numeric vocabulary, and four character vocabularies.Keywords: Behaviorism, Children aged 3-4 years, Traditional song-games, VocabularyAcquistion.

Social Dialects and Social Stractification: the Observer’s Paradox

This work provides a concise overview of the complex interplay between social dialects and social stratification, highlighting the enigmatic concept known as the "Observer's Paradox. Social dialects, the linguistic variations influenced by an individual's social identity and background, have been a significant area of study in sociolinguistics. These dialects are not only reflections of cultural diversity but are also intimately linked to social stratification, the division of society into hierarchical layers. While the influence of social stratification on language variation is well-documented, the "Observer's Paradox" poses an intriguing challenge in this context. The "Observer's Paradox" encapsulates the dilemma where the linguistic behavior of individuals may be altered when they are aware of being observed, especially when interacting with someone from a different social stratum. This paradox complicates sociolinguistic research because it introduces an element of artificiality into data collection and analysis. When individuals modify their speech patterns in the presence of researchers, it becomes challenging to draw accurate conclusions about the genuine linguistic behavior of different social groups. This work delves into the critical relationship between social dialects and social stratification while emphasizing the impact of the "Observer's Paradox." It explores the methods and challenges faced by researchers striving to unravel the complex dynamics of language variation in stratified societies. Understanding the nuances of the "Observer's Paradox" is essential for obtaining reliable insights into the intricate web of sociolinguistic phenomena and their intersection with social hierarchy. Furthermore, this exploration underscores the importance of employing innovative and ethical research techniques to mitigate the paradox's effects and gain a deeper understanding of the social dynamics at play.

The National Peculiarities of Coronavirus-Related Social Advertising in Russia and China

The relevance of the global problem of confronting the coronavirus infection has made it possible for a whole scholarly direction to appear, i. e. the COVID humanities. This has brought together scholars from different countries who study the social, psychological, and linguistic behaviour of people in the new crisis. Its philological branch appeals to linguistic issues during the struggle against COVID‑19. This article deals with the reflection of the pandemic in Russian and Chinese social advertising. Comparative analysis reveals a thematic similarity between the advertisements of the two countries. Social advertising as an effective tool of interaction between the country and its population has become a natural platform for educational hygiene and dissemination of scholarly knowledge about people’s behaviour during the pandemic. In addition, advertising in Russia and China is a powerful mobilisation resource for ensuring social solidarity, promoting a common collective destiny, expressing gratitude to doctors who are perceived as heroes of our time, and raising the level of collectivist culture that facilitates the implementation of anti-COVID measures. At the same time, the thematic similarity of advertisements released in the two countries has a different national meaning. Chinese advertisements demonstrate a high degree of ideologisation and figurativeness. The material of Russian advertisements studied makes it possible to trace the use of linguo-creative techniques at different stages of the pandemic and the development of shock methods for influencing the target audience. China’s special place as the epicenter of the spread of the new virus has caused China-specific topics to appear (support for Wuhan and appeals to the population to abstain from consuming wild animal meat).

Professional development during simulation-based learning: experiences and insights of preservice teachers

ABSTRACT In this study, we examined the professional development of preservice teachers (PTs) in the framework of simulation-based learning (SBL) during pedagogical courses. The study’s goal was to examine the reflective discourse patterns by focusing mainly on the linguistic behaviour of the SBL’s participants, to describe their experiences that tended to contribute to the professional development. To this end, two SBL workshops were studied using three data collection tools: (a) workshop transcripts, which were analysed using positioning theory and the systemic functional linguistic method; (b) interviews conducted with the main SBL participant in each workshop; and (c) observations collected by two simulation instructors who viewed the videotaped simulation of the two workshop scenarios. Thus, we obtained a broad picture of PTs’ perceptions of the SBL experiences. The data analysis revealed distinctive patterns of behaviour during the participants’ discursive interactions, pointing at three directions of PTs’ learning process. The findings show that SBL, as perceived by PTs, is a unique and novel tool that contributes to the enrichment of their professional training as well as benefits their professional development. The study contributes to the field by suggesting the connection between SBL experiences of the participants and the professional development process they undergo.

ЯЗЫКОВОЕ СОЗНАНИЕ ГОРОДСКОГО НАСЕЛЕНИЯ ДАГЕСТАНА

t. The increased interest in the position of national (native) languages in the world space is due to the intensification of the processes of globalization and, along with it, urbanization; the formation of an information society, which itself determines the dominant language that is necessary for communication. The growth of the importance of one language naturally contributes to the weakening of the status of other national languages, the narrowing of the areas of their functioning, respectively, the transformation of linguistic consciousness and human behaviour. The Republic of Dagestan is a multilingual region in which many national languages and dialects function. The intensity of modernization and urbanization has a huge impact on ethno-linguistic processes, the formation of a certain linguistic consciousness and the resulting linguistic behaviour. Therefore, the study of the state and status of the national language not only as a key identifier of the ethnic self-identification of an individual and a means of communication, the linguistic consciousness of the urban population, their preferred language of interpersonal communication, attitude to the native language of their ethnic community, the influence of the media on linguistic consciousness seems to be relevant in the mainstream ethnolinguistic processes, which are very difficult in a multinational community. Empirical material shows that complex ethnolinguistic processes are taking place in the modern urban space; there is a decrease in the weight of national (native) languages with an increase in the importance of the Russian language. It has been established that there is a transformation of the linguistic consciousness of the urban population, preference is given not to the national (native) language, the priority is communication in Russian.

A meeting of the minds: Broadening horizons in the study of linguistic discrimination and social justice through sociolinguistic and psycholinguistic approaches

Abstract 1Understanding social justice as it relates to linguistic discrimination and identity requires consideration of both production and perception. As linguists and cognitive psychologists become more attuned to talking about social justice, the need to discuss linguistic human behaviors through a sociocognitive lens becomes more pertinent than ever. This article offers a sociocognitive approach to linguistic analysis as a means to combat linguistic discrimination in the pursuit of social justice. Having negative ideologies about a particular group of people, especially a minoritized group, influences linguistic prediction and perceptions. Together, sociolinguistic and psychological methodologies are necessary to navigate a world in which people use linguistic knowledge to make decisions and predictions about their interlocutors. I use sociocognitive approaches as vehicles for social justice, centering African American English and Anti-Black Racism. The limited existing sociocognitive linguistic research indicates that listeners may modulate their linguistic expectations during cognitive processing based on speaker identity and stereotypes of speakers. As linguistic discrimination is ever-present in U.S. society, in addition to describing sociocognitive solutions, this article also represents a call to action for researchers to empirically test ideological claims about linguistic varieties that are passively accepted, strengthen replicability, and broaden approaches to the study of minoritized varieties more generally. Hopefully, this article will inspire linguistics researchers to consider all factors, cognitive and social, related to linguistic perception, further contributing to a greater understanding of how to combat linguistic discrimination from a multidimensional frame.

Use of We in Writing

Pronouns are few and fixed, but used frequently in language and their forms and functions have been reviewed in the past. The qualitative study theoretically underpinned by various linguistic philosophers is a teacher’s reflection about the use of English pronoun we in ninety-six extended written responses of English language learners studying two disciplines of knowledge in a public institution of higher education in Karachi. The data were collected from ninety-six participants in 2018, analyzed in 2019 and drafted in 2020. The occurrence of the royal we in the sentences of the participants was reportedly too low to connect it with exclusive-we. However, its deictic use was a frequent representation of togetherness. The study’s usefulness lies with further investigations into this linguistic behavior of the pronoun among its users.

Bilingual investments of dual-language immersion program alumni

ABSTRACT The article explores bilingual investments of dual-language immersion program alumni through an intersectional narrative analysis. Focusing on the experiences of bilingualism of six alumni, we investigate how they continue to be invested in bilingualism, the factors that shape their self-positionings as bilinguals, and the extent to which race is implicated in their experiences as bilingual speakers of Spanish and English. The analysis revealed that investment is not always agentive and is obligatory, and habitual – less conscious linguistic behavior. While individual efforts sustain bilingual investment, biculturalism requires a collective practice. Bilingual experiences are racialized, and raciolinguistic ideologies at home school, and society at large shape alumni’s bilingual investments. Across all findings, we discuss individual and collective similarities and differences among Hispanic/Latinx and White alumni. The article ends with implications for future research and practical recommendations for designing equitable bilingual programs.

A New Direction in Neoplatonic Linguistics: Aristotle as an Adherent of a ‘Specialist Name-Giver’ by Ammonius of Hermeias

This paper discusses the new linguistic treatment which is formulated for the first time in Neoplatonism, when Ammonius of Hermeias tries to compromise the linguistic views of Plato and Aristotle in his commentary on Aristotle’s On Interpretation. Ammonius integrates doctrines of Plato, Aristotle and Proclus, who was his teacher in Athens. According to Ammonius, Aristotle does not contradict Plato, who believes in the ‘divine name-giver’, the one that attributed the original names to beings; on the contrary, Aristotle confirms what Socrates says in the Cratylus, where he reproaches both his interlocutors for their extreme views. Ammonius examines several aspects of language, capturing Aristotle’s non-adherence to such an extremity. As he wishes to exempt Aristotle from Proclus’ censure, his position does not rest on assumptions, but he goes so far as to investigate Aristotle’s own linguistic behavior. Ammonius manifestly opts for reasoning the reconciliation between Plato and Aristotle, but he is thus led to put the concept of a ‘specialist name-giver’ in Aristotle’s mouth, without clarifying that he is talking about mankind, excluding the divine, although Aristotle never talks about a ‘specialist’, but just about the need to create names, based on the agreement between the members of a linguistic community.

How does experience teaching in Japanese EFL classrooms inform English native-speaker educators classroom practices? The negotiation of face in university classrooms

Abstract Language teachers experience a range of challenges unique to the cultural and social contexts in which they work. To negotiate these challenges and facilitate language acquisition, teachers draw on linguistic and sociocultural knowledge of the L1 and L2. United by a desire to develop and/or maintain positive aspects of face, students and their teachers employ culturally, socially and individually informed communicative strategies and behaviour to demonstrate individual worth and maintain classroom appropriateness. In this study, we analyzed the insights and practices of experienced and less experienced English native-speaker teachers (ENSTs) working with Japanese university students to identify challenges encountered within the classroom. The experienced language teachers (ExTs) identified a diverse array of challenges including student mental health, teacher fatigue and assessment transparency. In contrast, the less experienced teachers (LExTs) agreed that key challenges were student silence, use of the L1, and students sharing information. Focusing on the themes identified by the LExTs, we observed student/teacher interaction during learning activities and isolated the linguistic practices and behaviours employed by both groups of teachers. Through examining classroom exchanges we hope to arrive at a deeper understanding of the linguistic politeness strategies employed by ENSTs and potential implications for the negotiation of face.

Realism and Observation: The View from Generative Grammar

AbstractStandard proposals of scientific anti-realism assume that the methodology of a scientific research program can be endorsed without accepting its metaphysical commitments. I argue that the distinction between competence, the rules governing one’s language faculty, and performance, or linguistic behavior, precludes this. Linguistic theories aim to describe competence, not performance, and so must be able to distinguish observations reflective of the former from those reflective of the latter. This classification of data makes sense only against the background of a psychologically realistic view of linguistic theory. So the very methodology of the science commits one to its realistic interpretation.