Linguistic Categories Research Articles

New Constitution in Nepal: Fundamental Freedoms and Educational Rights Provisions, and Implications for Dalits’ Schooling

ABSTRACT When Nepal promulgated a new constitution in 2015, discourse around the ‘New Nepal’, post-monarchical rule, was powerful; the new constitution was perceived as a landmark text to provide a clear vision for New Nepal’s overall development. The poor state of Dalits’ human rights and educational realities were widely cited as critical issues requiring attention and expedited intervention during the constitution-writing process. Almost a decade later, however, no outstanding progress is evident regarding the overall development of the historically marginalized Dalits. This paper aims to interrogate the perpetuation of the dominant ideology, as the basis for the marginalization of people lacking power, in the new constitution’s fundamental and educational provisions by exploring its marginalizing semantic elements. We selected these semantic elements or linguistic categories through reading the new constitution. Our analyses expect to unfold the link between Dalits’ poor state of human rights and educational experiences and the provisions of the new constitution. This study helps expose the roots of inequality, exclusion, and social injustice by appraising policies of public interest in situations where human rights violations, illiteracy, and poverty have distressed the lives of marginalized people, as well as encouraging research on the problems faced by extremely vulnerable population like Dalits, who are not only marginalized in their place of birth but also in the diaspora.

CORRELATION OF THE TERMS "CLASSIFICATION ATTRIBUTE", "MOTIVATIONAL ATTRIBUTE", "SEMANTIC ATTRIBUTE"

The problem of distinguishing the terms "classification attribute", "motivational attribute", "semantic attribute" arose in connection with the active development of cognitive linguistics and the expansion of its terminology. The article describes for the first time approaches to understanding terms in a comparative aspect. The author analyzes dictionary definitions, consistently identifying classification, motivational, semantic features of lexemes, demonstrating the differences between these features. The author comes to the conclusion that the terms "classification attribute", "motivational attribute", "semantic attribute" differ functionally, their use is due to the paradigm and the field of linguistics in which the researcher works. Purpose. The purpose of the study is to distinguish the terms "classification attribute", "motivational attribute", "semantic attribute". Materials and methods. The material for the study was contexts with these terms extracted from scientific papers on cognitive linguistics, word formation, theoretical semantics, as well as dictionary entries. The descriptive and comparative methods, and method of theoretical analysis, were used. Results. The results of the study showed that the terms "motivational attribute", "semantic attribute", "classification attribute" differ functionally. The study of motivational attribute is aimed at identifying linguistic patterns. The study of semantic attribute is aimed at describing lexical (linguistic) meanings. The analysis of classification attribute aims to identify extralinguistic, namely cognitively significant information about the objects of reality. Practical implications. The results of the study can be used in lexicographic and translation practice, in research on issues of nomination, lexical meaning and linguistic categorization.

ANALYSIS OF FUNCTIONAL SPEECH ADAPTATION STRATEGIES IN MILITARY TRANSLATION

The research is focused on the aspect of functional speech adaptation of language interpreters who are gaining practical experience at the initial stage in the sphere of foreign-language military-professional communication and paying special attention to the search for original speech strategies to achieve the targets of the translation process in the most efficient way. The critical objective of the article is to theorize the functional speech adaptation and underscore the need and importance to develop interpreters’ unique creative strategies in the process of their adaptive professional maturation for the due carrying out of normal and special translation tasks under the conditions of operational military activities abroad. A detailed review of the scientific sources is carried out concerning research into definitions of linguistic terms such as: “adaptation,” “speech adaptation,” “speech strategies.” The author’s definition of the core of the term “Functional speech adaptation” is given and its main differences are outlined versus the definitions of the linguistic categories “adaptation” and “pragmatic adaptation” proposed by Russian linguistic theorists earlier. The most effective strategies for interpreting are reviewed, viz.: implementation of an interpreter’s anticipation, a strategy for target text forming from the ground of precision information, and a strategy for source text segmentation into minimal translation cells. The study applies the methods of definitional analysis, comparative analysis of theoretical principles with their generalization, theoretical synthesis of the concepts’ definitions, linguistic description method and linguistic modeling. The results of the conducted research make a significant contribution to studying functional speech adaptation of military interpreters in the implementation of interpreting and translation tasks on the foreign military sub-languages material. Moreover, the results of the study can be used for future research purposes of translation studies, theoretical and applied linguistics.

Lost in Untranslatability: Ishvara, Allah and Interfaith Dialogue

While translation plays a vital role in bridging intercultural gaps, it struggles to convey the exact meaning of certain ideas due to the unique characteristics and structures inherent in each language and the underlying social context. This difficulty is pronounced when translating between the language pair Hindi and Urdu, which, despite both originating from Khari Boli, have diverged significantly under the influences of Hinduism and Islam. In an Indian social context, the Arabic-origin Urdu word Allah is often equated with the Sanskrit-origin Hindi word Ishvara. However, this translation is problematic and can cause confusion because the Hindu idea of the divine, Ishvara, is fundamentally different from the Islamic concept of Allah. Building upon the theory of Sanskrit non-translatability proposed by Malhotra and Babaji, this paper argues for the existence of cultural untranslatability in the domain of Urdu-Sanskrit translation. Using a case study approach for the terms Ishvara and Allah, the paper concludes that specific religious terms should not be translated and makes the case that preserving precise linguistic categories is essential for meaningful inter-faith engagement.

Lost in Untranslatability: Ishvara, Allah and Interfaith Dialogue

While translation plays a vital role in bridging intercultural gaps, it struggles to convey the exact meaning of certain ideas due to the unique characteristics and structures inherent in each language and the underlying social context. This difficulty is pronounced when translating between the language pair Hindi and Urdu, which, despite both originating from Khari Boli, have diverged significantly under the influences of Hinduism and Islam. In an Indian social context, the Arabic-origin Urdu word Allah is often equated with the Sanskrit-origin Hindi word Ishvara. However, this translation is problematic and can cause confusion because the Hindu idea of the divine, Ishvara, is fundamentally different from the Islamic concept of Allah. Building upon the theory of Sanskrit non-translatability proposed by Malhotra and Babaji, this paper argues for the existence of cultural untranslatability in the domain of Urdu-Sanskrit translation. Using a case study approach for the terms Ishvara and Allah, the paper concludes that specific religious terms should not be translated and makes the case that preserving precise linguistic categories is essential for meaningful inter-faith engagement.

Constructing Identities in a Diverse School Setting: From Finnish Learners to Multilingual Experts

ABSTRACT This article investigates how Shanaya and Zona, two 11-year-old multilingual migrant children, construct identities as knowledgeable, multilingual, and socially aware experts in a comprehensive school in Finland. I use ethnographic data that includes school observation and interviews to show how they find moments for overcoming disadvantageous circumstances through identity construction, and thus empower themselves. This empowerment seems to happen in informal situations, implying that there is little space for being something other than Finnish or Finnish-speaking elsewhere in the school. This study describes the children’s lived experience holistically by showing how linguistic, ethnic, and social identity categories intertwine and manifest in language use. It adds to our knowledge of the empowerment of young migrant children in school-related discourses outside of the anglophone world and calls for acknowledging children’s voices in developing education globally.

A Buddhist Mindfulness View of Paradox: Silence and Skepticism of Language to Dismantle Paradoxes

This study explores how Buddhist mindfulness as a self-reflective practice helps individuals respond to a paradox and ultimately dismantle it. To deeply immerse myself into this context, I conducted a nine-month ethnographic fieldwork in three Korean Buddhist temples that confront the paradox between the need for financial resources and spiritual values that disavow money. The findings show a series of cognitive mechanisms that reveal multiple roles of mindfulness, manifested as silence and skepticism of language. First, the monastic environment enables monks to become familiar with a life of silence that turns their attention to the inner mind from the external-empirical world. The silence serves as a mental buffer when monks switch between their sacred role and their business role. Over time, deep silence directs them to skepticism of language that triggers doubt on preexisting linguistic categories, boundaries, and separations. When the preexisting linguistic categories finally disappear in their mind, monks no longer rely on any differentiating or integrating tactic to navigate their paradox. In other words, they no longer perceive a paradox, which means the paradox has disappeared from their life. These cognitive mechanisms construct the monks’ worldview on contradictions, conflicts, and dualities, leading them from the experience of paradox to a unique mental state, the nonexperience of paradox. Integrating this mental state and the worldview of Buddhist monks with paradox research, this study theorizes a Buddhist mindfulness view of paradox. Funding: This work was supported by Chulalongkorn University.

Automated Determination of Music Genre and Linguistic Categorization

The main objective of the project is to build a system that allows users to predict genre as well as language out of some music . The Automated determination of musical genre and linguistic categorization is a machine learning based prediction model which is used to predict the genres and languages of an audio . Musical genres are categorical labels created by humans to characterize piece of music. A musical genre is characterized by common characteristics typically related to the instrumentation, rhythmic structure and harmonic content of the music. The performance and relative importance of the proposed features are investigated by training the statistical pattern recognition classifiers using real world audio collections and using machine learning algorithm.In this project, we built systems called music genre and language classification and the effects of different feature extraction methods and their various combinations were also investigated. This task is of great interest in music information retrieval and recommendation systems. In recent years, several machine learning algorithms have been developed to tackle this task, using features such spectral, temporal, and tonal characteristics of audio signals. Music genre prediction and language classification is a task that involves automatically predicting a piece of music into a specific genre category as well as language based on its audio features. Keywords-machine-learning,music,music genre and language classification

Ideology, Indexicality, and the L2 Development of Sociolinguistic Perception During Study Abroad

This article explores one second language Spanish learner’s development of sociolinguistic perception in Peru involving target language variation and social indexicality in a study abroad context. Specifically, it investigates the perceptual mechanism that evolves in this context and enables L2 learners to interpret dialectal target language forms by linking them with elements of character, group traits, and other social attributes. An analysis of ethnographic data revealed two phases in this development. While the initial phase was characterized by the learner’s formation of contrastive social and linguistic categories and first-order sociolinguistic indices linking ways of speaking to kinds of people, the latter phase involved a rationalization and justification of these links. I claim that this produced an ideological field in which the learner located specific morphosyntactic variants as indexing social qualities like ‘licentiousness’ and ‘ineptitude’ via their association with brichero and cholo social types from the host society. These findings implicate language ideologies as the fundamental perceptual mechanism that enables L2 learners to interpret the social meaning of TL practices. This case study recommends critical pedagogies and innovative curricula to bolster L2 learners’ development of sociolinguistic competence during study abroad.

Tracing the fine-scale demographic history and recent admixture in Hmong-Mien speakers.

The linguistic, historical, and subsistent uniqueness of Hmong-Mien (HM) speakers offers a wonderful opportunity to investigate how these factors impact the genetic structure. The genetic differentiation among HM speakers and their population history are not well characterized. Here, we generate genome-wide data from 65 Yao ethnicity samples and analyze them with published data, particularly by leveraging haplotype-based methods. We determined that the fine-scale genetic substructure of HM speakers corresponds better with linguistic classification than with geography. Particularly, parallels between serial founder events and language differentiations can be observed in West Hmongic speakers. Multiple lines of evidence indicate that ~500-year-old GaoHuaHua individuals are most closely related to West Hmongic-speaking Bunu. The strong genetic bottleneck of some HM-speaking groups, especially Bunu, could potentially be associated with their long-term practice of swidden agriculture to some degree. The inferred admixture dates for most of the HM speakers overlap with the reign of the Ming dynasty (1368-1644 CE). Besides a common genetic origin for HM speakers, their genetic ancestry is shared primarily with neighboring Han Chinese and Tai-Kadai speakers in south China. In conclusion, our analyses reveal that recent isolation and admixture events have contributed to the genetic population history of present-day HM speakers.

Active Language Modulates Color Perception in Bilinguals

AbstractColor terms divide the color spectrum differently across languages. Previous studies have reported that speakers of languages that have different words for light and dark blue (e.g., Russian siniy and goluboy) discriminate color chips sampled from these two linguistic categories faster than speakers of languages that use one basic color term for blue (e.g., English blue). This effect has been reported to be disrupted when participants engaged in a verbal interference task, suggesting that active language use can modulate the linguistic category effect. The current study provided a stringent test of this hypothesis by examining color discrimination under verbal interference in bilinguals speaking Lithuanian (two blue categories) and Norwegian (one blue category). The results revealed that the language activated during verbal interference had a significant impact on bilinguals’ color discrimination. Specifically, Lithuanian–Norwegian bilinguals exhibited a color category effect only when performing the task under verbal interference in Lithuanian but not in Norwegian. This demonstrated, within the same individuals, the momentary effect of active language processing on color perception.

Language ideologies and speaker categorization: a case study from the U.S. legal system

Abstract This study examines a judicial opinion from an appellate court in the District of Columbia, in the United States, using membership categorization analysis. The appeal concerned the absence of an interpreter during the police interrogation of a person suspected of having committed a crime, and whether this absence violated a local law about the provision of interpreters. Deciding this appeal required the court to determine whether the defendant had met a statutory definition of “communication-impaired” persons who are entitled to interpretation services. I argue that, in determining whether the defendant fit into this legal category, the court discursively constructed two linguistic categories that helped support its ultimate disposition of the appeal. These linguistic categories were hierarchically positioned, with English speakers as a default and non-English speakers as somehow deficient or unable to fully function in society. The court’s opinion also contemplated a binary choice of a person being able to communicate in English fully, or not at all, with the possibility that a person might be proficient in English for some purposes, but not others, often presented as a concession or ancillary point. Taken as a whole, the category construction in the opinion suggests an ideology of English monolingualism, which belies a reality of multilingualism, code-shifting, and mixed linguistic identities.

Uncovering the Common Linguistic Errors in Student Journalists’ Unedited News Articles: A Comprehensive Analysis

English language learners encounter difficulties in mastering grammar and vocabulary, which can significantly influence their writing skills. This study analyzes the most common writing errors and their linguistic classification in student journalists’ unedited articles; it also utilizes a qualitative-descriptive design and Corder’s Error Analysis Model for data analysis. Ten selected unedited news articles written by student journalists were examined. Findings revealed that the student writers have common linguistic errors: mechanical, morpho-syntactic, and lexico-semantic. The findings imply that student journalists are not exempted from committing linguistic errors that may affect information decoding despite being trained and exposed to writing activities. The findings have broader implications as student journalists may serve as representatives of English language learners in their institution or community. Schools may develop remedial programs to provide ample practice opportunities using interactive, technology-based tools for grammar and vocabulary. English teachers may create instructional materials and develop community extension and outreach programs to address grammatical learning gaps.

Research Front and Future Prospect: A Bibliometric Study of Metaphor Comprehension

Metaphor comprehension is an important component in the process of constructing metaphorical thinking. Therefore, the topic of “metaphor comprehension” should be a crucial part of metaphor studies. This study uses Bibliometrix to conduct a bibliometric study of research on metaphor comprehension from 2013 to 2023, focusing on the knowledge structure, the hot spots, and the research fronts. The co-citation analysis shows that the Contemporary Theory of Metaphor (CTM) in Cognitive Linguistics has provided the dominant knowledge foundation for the research of metaphor comprehension. A large number of hypotheses from CTM not only provide theoretical guidance for the current understanding of metaphor but also provide a reference for experimental paradigms. The coupling analysis shows that most of the influential studies in the time span have conducted empirical studies, demonstrating the explanatory power of empirical results and the interdisciplinary trend of metaphor in psychology and neuroscience. In the past decade, theoretical approaches to metaphor comprehension have been divided into linguistic and interdisciplinary categories, in which different experimental paradigms and conditions were used to reveal the comprehension mechanism. However, while providing insights for metaphor comprehension study through the existing research results, the bibliometric analysis reflects that researchers should fully consider the gap between metaphor in use and metaphor in experiments. This may be mediated through the progress of metaphor comprehension models in different contexts. This study suggests that future research on metaphor comprehension should enrich their theoretical models, properly use or combine research methods and designs, and look into different types of research objects.

Changes in the Semantic Development of Synonymous Terms

Although the problem of synonymy is one of the main categories of structural linguistics, it does not hide the fact that it has many controversial issues. Basically, in order to fully study all the functions and natural phenomena of synonymy, it is necessary to conduct a study of semantics in the form. Although the phenomenon of synonymy is recognized in a separate section of lexicology, its universal character allowed to consider it in all areas of linguistic structure. Regardless of the language in which we speak, we follow for that there is a category of synonyms. The phenomenon of synonymy differs in its function of distinguishing values. And meaning is a linguistic expression of thoughts and cognition, therefore, in linguistic questions, related to meaning, does not fit into fixed formulas within the framework of structural linguistics. In terms of the expansion of human knowledge, dynamic changes in the meaning of the language also lead to its transformation. Therefore, one of the unresolved issues in the phenomenon of synonymy is the term synonyms. The article describes the reasons for the formation of term-synonyms, differences from lexical synonyms and changes in semantic development. The study of terms-synonyms is carried out with the aim of developing the use of national terms. This is due to the fact that even now in the Kazakh language there is an equivalent for foreign terms, the parallel use of the term prevents the unification of the term. The formation of absolute synonymous pairs of terms denoting one and the same concept means that one scientific concept has two titles. Therefore, it is necessary to prove which of the two names was chosen and confirmed as a term. This article also serves this purpose.

Morphology and Derivation in Perspective of the Development of the Concept's Conjugation in Linguistics: A New Linguistic Reading

The study addresses the ambiguity between the terms "morphology" and "derivation" in linguistic discourse. It aims to establish a methodological distinction to delineate their boundaries by examining their meanings, tracing the morphological concept's evolution, and redefining these terms. Employing logical and mathematical distinctions, the research investigates linguistic categories and their elements. Through a descriptive analytical approach, it delves into three axes: the development of morphological concepts, the interpretation of morphology and derivation in grammatical heritage, and the application of logical concepts to distinguish the terms. Among the most prominent results are the adoption of a new distinction between the terms morphology and derivation, the restriction of the divisions of morphology to them, and the importance of applying the concept of category in linguistics in formulating a methodological distinction between the two terms and reclassifying the divisions of Arabic morphology. The study recommends conducting in-depth studies on the concept of category in Arabic linguistics and investing it in analyzing other linguistic phenomena, benefiting from it in the educational curricula for teaching the Arabic language, and integrating the concept of category in teaching morphology and derivation. KEYWORDS Arabic morphology, grammatical heritage, lexical unit, linguistic phenomena, logical concepts, speech part

Transient and Long‐Term Linguistic Influences on Visual Perception: Shifting Brain Dynamics With Memory Consolidation

AbstractLinguistic categories can impact visual perception. For instance, learning that two objects have different names can enhance their discriminability. Previous studies have identified a typical pattern of categorical perception, characterized by faster discrimination of stimuli from different categories, a neural mismatch response during early visual processing (100–200 ms), and effects restricted to the right visual field. However, it remains unclear whether language affects perception online or through long‐term changes to mental representations in memory. To address this, we tested the impact of newly learned object categories with and without memory consolidation during sleep. We replicated the canonical pattern of categorical perception for categories that underwent consolidation. Without consolidation, linguistic categories still influenced early visual processing but with distinct neural dynamics. Therefore, we found evidence of both transient and long‐term effects of language on perception and conclude that memory consolidation plays a crucial role in shaping how linguistic categories modulate perception.

A tale of two platforms: A comparative analysis of language use in consumer complaints on Reddit and Spotify Community

AbstractConsumer complaints play a crucial role for companies in understanding customer needs and spotting possible areas of improvement. In the digital era, online platforms have become popular venues for users to voice their concerns. According to Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT) and recipient design, consumers may have different recipients in mind when writing a complaint and tailor their language accordingly. This study aims to examine language variations in consumer complaints on an independent platform and a corporate platform, exploring how consumers adjust their language based on the intended recipients of their complaints. Comments under complaint posts from Reddit's dedicated subreddit, r/Spotify, and from the Spotify Community were extracted and analyzed using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC), a text analysis tool. This comparative analysis identified and compared various linguistic categories within the consumer complaints from the perspectives of formality, emotion, and assertion. The results showed that complaints on the corporate platform (1) used more formal language, (2) contained more negative emotional tones and emotion words, and (3) exhibited more assertiveness compared to those on the independent platform. Understanding the distinct linguistic features in consumer complaints on different platforms can help companies tailor their responses and address customer concerns effectively. This research contributes to the growing field of online consumer complaining behavior by uncovering how language is employed within different online communities depending on the message recipient. Furthermore, it demonstrates the potential of LIWC as a valuable tool for analyzing unstructured consumer‐generated content across diverse digital platforms, offering insights into user sentiment and experiences.

Rumour: A Lexicographical Description of the Word Meaning From Evidentiality Perspective

Current media studies as well as the analysis of social interaction put forward the notion of rumours playing a significant role in human communication and making it a full-fledged object of linguistic analysis. The article is devoted to the description and unification of the lexicographical meaning of the word ‘rumour’ which is basic for indirect knowledge transmission. The proposed research perspective is preconditioned by the interest in uncertain knowledge and informal communication practices including such phenomena as rumors, gossip, etc., inherent in professional communication, as well as in the category of evidentiality. The empirical material comprises dictionary interpretations, the inconsistency of which stipulated the application of the ideas of lexical semantics. Componential analysis is chosen as the main method to define meanings. As a result, the polysemy of the word under study has been exposed, with its structure including five lexico-semantic variants with different types of relations. The invariant set of ‘without confirmation’, ‘uncertain origin’, ‘questionable accuracy’ components in the structure of the meanings indicates that there is a direct connection of the word semantics with the linguistic categories of evidentiality and epistemic modality. The analysis shows that when interpreting the values obtained, the concept of evidence as a source of information has an explanatory potential, the crucial factor being its distinct classification in terms of levels. The extensive typology of reportive evidentials enables to define the central meaning of the word ‘rumour’ as information characterized as transmitted knowledge, realized through informal statements, categorized as a proper reportative marked by the third level of evidence. The core ‘questionable accuracy’ seme testifies to the correlation of the reportative evidential value and the epistemic evaluation of the acquired knowledge which manifests itself in the fact that indirect mediated access to information potentiates its qualification as lacking confirmation.

A Cacophony of Classifications: Education and Identification in a Prenational Empire

Abstract The article seeks to fill a gap in existing scholarship on explicit and implicit linguistic, ethnic, and national classifications in Habsburg schools and their effects. It attempts to reconstruct the classifications that appeared in textbooks and other teaching materials as well as in daily practice, pupils’ exposure to them, and their engagement with these categories. Temporally, the study begins with the establishment of compulsory education (1774) and ends in the revolutionary period of 1848–49 and focuses on the Slavophone population of the Habsburg crownlands Carniola, Carinthia, Styria, and the Austrian Littoral. Our research suggests that systematic and uniform classification schemes were not yet in place in the school environment in the period under review. As a result, the influence of classificatory systems on identifications was limited. If anything, the schools inadvertently reproduced existing local and provincial identifications while the students’ limited internalization of emerging transregional identifications only happened through their personal relationships with a few teachers and peers. The transition from familiarization with emerging transregional ethnolinguistic identifications through personal networks to the systemic (and often completely unintentional) reproduction of nationalist ideology happened only after 1848.