Linguistic Community Research Articles

Linguocultural Aspect of Hypotaxemes with Conditional Components in English and Uzbek Languages

In modern linguistics, there is a great interest in the analysis of linguistic and cultural material in the process of teaching languages, an anthropocentric paradigm is formed, and the language is considered not only within its communicative and cognitive function but as a kind of cultural code of individual linguistic and cultural communities. The purpose of this scientific article is to study the manifestation of linguistic and cultural worldviews and to study the linguistic and cultural aspects of hypotaxemes with conditional components in English and Uzbek languages. The study of the conceptual structure allows us to identify deeper and more significant properties of hypotaxemes with conditional components. The object of this scientific article is conditional sentences that express statements discussing known factors or hypothetical situations and their consequences. Complete conditional sentences contain a conditional clause (often referred to as the if-clause) and the consequence in non-related languages such as Uzbek and English.

A Focus on Some Phonological Assimilation of English and French Loanwords into Hausa

The present research aims to examine a comparative phonological study of English and French loanwords into Hausa as spoken in Nigeria and Niger Republic respectively. The main objective of the research is to identify and analyze the lexical differences of the two linguistic communities at phonological point of view. The study is going to cover two important areas that will represent other Hausa speaking areas, one in Nigeria and the other Niger. In southern Niger (Maradi and Damagaran) the largest cities with massive Hausa speakers in the country will be selected. In Nigeria, Kano city will be selected being the largest Hausa city with several Hausa speakers and the Kano Hausa is the closest dialect of standard Hausa. In collection of the data, various written materials available Bookshops and online materials will be referred to; Besides, two research assistants will be co-opted to assist in collecting a proportion of some lexical items within geographical areas from both Kano, Maradi and Damagaran. An observation and interview research methods will also be used in collecting the data, as the research deals with spoken Hausa. The anticipated findings of the research will be identifying Certain English and French Phonemes with their closest phonemes inventory of the first language (Hausa). Also, to identify some of the principles of Hausa language that play great roles in the phenomena of foreign lexicon thereby making the incoming loanwords looks and sound like the native Hausa words.

БИРМАНСКИЙ (МЬЯНМАНСКИЙ) ВАРИАНТ АНГЛИЙСКОГО ЯЗЫКА: КРАТКИЙ ОБЗОР СУЩЕСТВУЮЩИХ ИССЛЕДОВАНИЙ

. The aim of the article is to summarize the existing studies of the Burmese variety of English. The author analyzes research papers including classifications of World Englishes recognized by the linguistic community, which contain the Burmese variety of English (or Burmese English), studies describing historical prerequisites which explain why Burmese English is considered to be in the Kachruvian Expanding Circle, articles and books describing Asian Englishes with reference to Burmese English and some of its features, as well as some classical and recent works on Burmese studies. The article concludes with the unique historical path of the Burmese variety of English, which, being an Expanding Circle variety and having some regional characteristics of South Asian and Eastern Asian Englishes, contains characteristics which allow linguists to single it out as an independent variety of English. Burmese English requires deep and comprehensive analysis in comparison with other varieties of Outer and Expanding Circles.

Rôle de l’ethos et de ses marqueurs dans l’organisation discursive

This work aims at studying the notion of ethos using a semantic-pragmatic approach that allows us to reflect on how and why such a notion came into being. The aim is to identify the reasons why any individual, in interaction with his fellow human beings, may be led to elaborate and project a certain image of himself. At the root of these reasons lies a basic notion: the linguistic community, which in our view represents the hinge linking the why and the how and enables us to understand the general mechanism at work in the construction of ethos. We also propose the analysis of discourse markers by considering their importance in the projection of an ethos.

Phrasemes as prototypical linguistic micro-representations of the world: the role of values in the propagation of Winged Words

Phrasemes such as winged words, quotations, dicta etc. establish an intertextual connection, i.e. they originate in pre-existing texts which can refer to further texts or extralinguistic phenomena. Such phrasemes typically align with the cultural and conceptual core values of the linguistic communities and social peers they are coined in, which makes them linguistic micro-representations, and to propagate successfully as many recipients as possible must align with the conveyed ideas and use the phrasemes themselves. So far, it has not been investigated upon what impact values might have or not have on the propagation of winged words. To fill this gap, the role of values in the context of perception, cognition, and language is examined from an interdisciplinary perspective. After that, this article analyses the variability of literary winged words to be or not to be, that is the question, ger. das (also) war des Pudels Kern, it. nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita and the biblical quotation an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth in Sketch Engine corpora enTenTen21, deTenTen20 and itTenTen20 from an onomasiological perspective, focusing on differences between canonical form and modifications and on the coherence of the corresponding value structures.

Discriminación y limitaciones en el uso de la lengua española: el fetiche de la norma en Twitter (X)

This paper discusses the restrictions that the standard norm of Spanish imposes on speakers. T he analysis has been based on opinions expressed on the social network Twitter regarding memes that present spelling or grammatical deviations from the standard norm of Spanish. Firstly, some terms are discussed to contextualize this phenomenon, such as linguistic profiling and linguistic discrimination (linguicism, accentism, and glottophobia). After that, a corpus of one hundred comments collected from Twitter between November and December 2022 is analyzed. This corpus serves as textuality to illustrate how society reproduces discriminatory patterns based on the assumption of regulations understood in terms of command and prestige. The main conclusion of this research is that the restrictive nature of the languages governed by normative institutions limits the innovative practices of a linguistic community and encourages discriminatory and classist practices.

Language and Worldview: Conceptualisation of Novel Concepts in Languages of Nasarawa State

The paper investigates the extent to which language and worldview interact in the conceptualization of novel concepts in six (6) languages of Nasarawa State using linguistic relativity hypothesis. Data for the study were generated from a checklist containing forty-five (45) novel concepts. The methods of data analysis were both descriptive and comparative. The results show that speakers of the languages express the novel concepts as nominal compounds, descriptive noun phrases, genitive constructions and ideophones. Four major conceptualization strategies: description, compounding, transliteration, and imitation were found to account for the conceptualization of the novel terms in concert with the respective worldviews of the speakers of the languages. The findings support the view that conceptual differences indicating differences in worldview occur across the languages. The results of the study support the middle course proposal of the moderates, who argue that the effect of the interaction between language and worldview is local, transient, and shallow; not total or sacrosanct. Apart from fostering a better understanding of the relationship between language and worldview of the respective linguistic communities, and revealing the subconscious attitudes of the speakers, the study would form part of the efforts to document and describe endangered languages. And by this, the study can be said to be potentially transformative as it could be reproduced in other Nigerian languages.

Sulla definizione di coerenza testuale. Dizionari e ricerca a confronto verso un modello operativo per le classi del ciclo superiore

This study presents reflections on developing a grammar of Val Badia Ladin. For minority languages undergoing processes of standardisation and normalisation primarily based on the synchronic system of the language, the creation of a normative grammar for the linguistic community necessitates a discussion on the interplay between the norm and linguistic variation. Furthermore, the paper casts some light on the significance of acquiring both written and oral data to comprehensively analyse language use within various communicative contexts. Lastly, three examples are provided to delineate the challenges concerning variation and normativity within a mainly normative grammar.

Proporre una grammatica per una lingua di minoranza: l’esempio del ladino della Val Badia

This study presents reflections on developing a grammar of Val Badia Ladin. For minority languages undergoing processes of standardisation and normalisation primarily based on the synchronic system of the language, the creation of a normative grammar for the linguistic community necessitates a discussion on the interplay between the norm and linguistic variation. Furthermore, the paper casts some light on the significance of acquiring both written and oral data to comprehensively analyse language use within various communicative contexts. Lastly, three examples are provided to delineate the challenges concerning variation and normativity within a mainly normative grammar.

ABSOLUTE EQUIVALENCE OF PHRASEOLOGISMS WITH THE COMPONENT EYE IN ITALIAN, SPANISH AND SERBIAN

This paper deals with a contrastive and conceptual analysis of somatic phraseologisms with the component eye in Italian, Spanish and Serbian, with the aim to find absolute cross-linguistic equivalents, i.e. those phraseologisms that will show a perfect symmetry on the semantic, formal and functional level, but also congruence in the concepts they express. A corpus of 102 phraseologisms was excerpted from the relevant general and phraseological dictionaries. The initial hypothesis is that, despite the fact that cases of absolute equivalents are rare, the analysed corpus will offer a significant number of such phraseologisms since somatic phraseology, due to the universality of bodily experience, reveals analogies between languages. The corpus was first subjected to a contrastive analysis in order to identify the cases of absolute equivalents. The corpus was also subjected to conceptual analysis, that aimed at determining the motivational mechanism underlying the phraseologisms, thanks to the postulated conceptual metaphors and metonymies, and then the phraseologisms were classified into semantic fields. The results confirmed the initial hypothesis. The phraseological corpus of the three contrasted languages offers a significant number of absolute translation equivalents among phraseologisms with the component eye. The largest number of absolute equivalents belongs to the semantic fields INSIGHT (6), followed by LOVE and ATTENTION/CAUTION (5). The first case can be explained by the fact that in almost all linguistic and cultural communities, eyes symbolise intellectual perception, and the second, that the semantic field of LOVE does not have precisely defined boundaries and implies different feelings ranging, from liking to lust. In the case of ATTENTION/CAUTION, the eyes, as the most important sense that perceives almost 90% of information serve, among other things, to monitor a situation and keep it under control. Some phraseologisms owe their absolute equivalence to the Bible, classical literature or mythology, and some to polygenesis and calques.

Choice of language in the construction of cultural identity by Tamil speakers in India

Abstract Individuals in multilingual societies are associated with several culturally diverse groups, and so their cultural identity is multifarious and subject to constant change across time and space as a result of increasing intercultural engagements. While cultural norms are essentially embedded in one’s language, the choice of language is understood as a significant tool in projecting the cultural identity of a linguistic community. This paper examines how language choice becomes an agency for Tamil speakers in India to construct their cultural identity. Contextualized among native Tamil speakers in Chennai, the capital city of the southernmost Indian state of Tamil Nadu, this study unravels the narratives by which the speakers’ specific language preference in family, friendship, and institutional domains is used to perform identities and maintain a community consciousness. It also examines the role of language ideologies in contributing to their choices. The study finds that despite the penetration of English into all three domains in varying degrees, Tamil remains the ‘pride’ and the preferred language for all. This affinity is driven by ideological discourses surrounding the cultural history of Tamizhakam, from which arise the need to form a distinct Tamil identity.

Linguistic Landscape of a Modern Post-Soviet Capital — Case of Chișinău, Republic of Moldova

The study of linguistic landscape considers the hierarchy of languages motivated by political, administrative, and economic reasons, as reflected in the graphic design and order of inscriptions. In this research, we will present the linguistic landscape of Chișinău by analyzing top-down and bottom-up signs and commercial billboards. The choice fell on this city because it is multiethnic, home for Moldovans/Romanians and other nationalities. The relevance of the topic is explained by the fact that Moldova aspires to join the European Union, and in 2018 Chișinău became one of the country’s pilot municipalities for the application of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which the country has adopted, but has not yet ratified. The new signs must indicate direction to public and cultural institutions, monuments and memorials, parks and major streets, university buildings, the railway station, and the airport with trilingual inscriptions in Moldovan, a local minority language (Russian, Ukrainian, Bulgarian, German or Yiddish) and English. The investigation of the linguistic landscape will help identify the dominant language(s) in the Moldovan capital, understand the relations between linguistic communities and the linguistic situation in Chișinău.

System relations in Russian vocabulary as a reflection of the mechanism of knowledge categorization

The article examines the issues of systemic semantic organization of vocabulary from the point of view of how they reflect the principles of categorization of knowledge about reality. Different principles that underlie the systemic organization of semantic paradigms of different types are shown. Some principles of categorization are reflected in the semantic structure of a single word, as well as a specific paradigm that captures the result of categorization of one fragment of reality. It is shown that the principles of knowledge categorization in this case reflect the objective features of the denotation in its perception by consciousness. Other principles of knowledge categorization are revealed when comparing different types of semantic paradigms (lexical-semantic group, lexical-semantic field, associative-semantic field, derivational-semantic field), including those that categorize knowledge about the same denotative field. The principles of categorization, identified on the basis of a comparison of interword semantic relations within the framework of paradigms of different types, are to a greater extent universal and relate to the cognition of any or many denotative areas. A comparison of relationships between lexical units in different types of semantic paradigms confirms the fact of multiple categorization of knowledge about the same reality as a principle of categorization of knowledge about the world. This conclusion follows from the picture of multiple intersections of different types of paradigms, which include the same lexical units. Comparison of systemic organization of semantic paradigms of different types more fully reveals the mechanism of systematizing activity of consciousness – categorization and conceptualization of knowledge in the world picture of linguistic community.

About concept substitution in the philosophical and linguistic beliefs of Wilhelm von Humboldt and its influence on modern linguistics

The article is devoted to exposing the logical fallacy of concept substitution in the philosophical and linguistic beliefs of Wilhelm von Humboldt and its influence on modern linguistics. After paying tribute to the famous scientist, it notes the well-known fact that in his famous 1820 lecture, Humboldt presented the ideas of the stage concept of language in such a way as to affirm the notion of root languages transitioning into incorporative ones, incorporative into agglutinative, and agglutinative into inflectional as the most perfect. It points out that Humboldt's assertion of such transitions was unanimously recognized by the linguistic community as erroneous. The article then gradually examines Humboldt's logically flawed statements, which can be seen as harbingers of the error this article focuses on: the contradiction between the scientist's claims that a people's spirit and language are identical, yet language depends on spirit, and that thinking not only depends on language but is determined by it. Next, the author discusses Humboldt's logical error, exposing which is the purpose of this article: the understanding of language as an independently existing entity, substituting the concept of a human-created communicative system with the concept of a human-created independently acting entity. It is suggested that Humboldt's logical mistake was to some extent caused by the prevailing ideology of idealistic Romanticism, which led him to make language a vivid, independent individuality. Furthermore, Humboldt made this error because of the superficial perception of the mobility of language as caused by its independence, while in fact such mobility is caused by the subconscious thinking of its speakers, which the scientist failed to grasp. Therefore, the article discusses the numerous instances where modern linguists continue to cite and comment positively on these flawed statements by Humboldt, and expresses the hope that this article will somewhat contribute to understanding the fallacy of the studied philosophical and linguistic beliefs of Wilhelm von Humboldt, which in turn will prevent their influence on modern linguistics.

What We Argue about when We Argue about Disease

The disease debate in philosophy of medicine has traditionally been billed as a debate over the correct conceptual analysis of the term “disease.” This paper argues that although the debate’s participants overwhelmingly claim to be in the business of conceptual analysis, they do not tend to argue as if this is the case. In particular, they often show a puzzling disregard for key parameters such as precise terminology, linguistic community, and actual usage. This prima facie strange feature of the debate points to an interesting and potentially instructive hypothesis: the disease debate makes little sense within the paradigm of conceptual analysis but makes good sense on the assumption that pathology is a real kind.

Un frammento di metafisica descrittiva: i presupposti dell’atteggiamento naturale

The combinatory restriction known in linguistics as selection restrictions are generally assumed to be a kind of linguistic structures, either syntactic or semantic, or at best cognitive structures. The idea discussed in this paper is that selection restrictions, although relevant for the description of complex meanings of linguistic expressions, do not belong to the structure of either language or cognition. Instead, they are criteria for conceptual consistency. They form a layer of shared presuppositions that lie at the grounds of consistent human behaviour and therefore of consistent thought and expression and belong to a natural ontology shared far beyond the boundaries of a given linguistic community.

Romanian-Ukrainian Anthroponymic Contact on the Interstate Border along the Tisza River

The area between Romania and Ukraine has been the site of frequent language contact for many centuries. This contact has impacted the onomastic store of both nations. This study analyzes anthroponyms (family and first names) in the border area between Ukraine and Romania, along the Tisza River. This study investigates the frequency and etymological origin of family names in the Ukrainian/Romanian communities on both sides of the Tisza. It explores the factors that may have facilitated the spread of Ukrainian/Romanian names beyond their linguistic communities of origin; and it discusses the cultural identity of the two minorities as expressed by their anthroponymic trends. Based on the results of a corpus of historical data gathered between 2000 and 2021, the findings of this research show how language contact, migration, fashion, and tradition can influence anthroponymic choices and reflect ethnic identity.

A pragmatic turn in the philosophy of language in the context of problems of preservation and development of minority languages

By the beginning of the twenty-first century essentialism is giving way to the constructivist paradigm in the field of social sciences and humanities. However, linguistic essentialism survived all the shocks and received a classical form in the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis of linguistic relativism. The application of this hypothesis to the analysis of linguistic communities puts majority and minority languages in different positions: it makes strong languages even stronger, and simply kills small ones. The task of preserving minority languages in programs built using this methodology turns out to be impossible. In our humble opinion, two research paradigms are more adequate for the purpose. One of them is associated with the pragmatic turn in the analytical philosophy of language and represents a transition from the analysis of the structure of the language itself to the analysis of the conditions of communication, taking into account all the sociocultural components of this process. The second methodology is Erving Goff man’s concept of social face and performative behavior.

Semantic Structure of the Word in the Perspective of Interdisciplinary Research

The study is devoted to actual issues of cognitive linguistic and cultural linguistic. Both sciences are sciences of the synthesizing type, and they make it possible to explore a linguistic sign in its deep functions related to the mentality and culture of a particular linguistic community. The object of the research is the commonly used Russian lexeme a head , which is the key sign of the corresponding concept. Its semantic structure, paradigmatic and national-cultural characteristics are established. The novelty of the study lies in the complex of applied methods: vocabulary definition analysis, contextual analysis, introspection method, cognitive interpretation of the results obtained. A culturological commentary is provided. Theoretical value of the study: the synthesizing approach allows us identify the structure and content of the concept, as well as cultural attitudes transmitted by language signs. Applied value: the results of the study can be used in lexicographic practice, as well as in the courses on cognitive linguistics, cultural linguistic, theory of intercultural communication.

Valuing Diversity: in defense of the identity of vulnerable / minoritized linguistic communities

Apresentação à Revista Linguística v.19 n.3