Linguistic Concepts Research Articles

The Playhouse Effect: John Webster, Deixis and Story-Telling in the Theatres of Jacobean London

The recent (2014) inauguration of the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, a reconstruction of an archetypal Jacobean indoor playhouse, on London’s Southbank, has led students and scholars of early modern theatre once again to focus attention on original playhouse performances, just as they did when its older sibling Shakespeare’s Globe opened its doors in 1996. The earlier assumption that the differences between open-air amphitheatres and indoor playhouses conditioned the way plays were written and acted is now enjoying a new lease on life, and yet there has been little research conducted in order to substantiate this otherwise perfectly logical intuition. Drawing on the insights of drama theorist Manfred Pfister as well as the linguistic concept of deixis, this article compares the language and plotting of three plays by the Jacobean playwright John Webster: The White Devil, The Duchess of Malfi and The Devil’s Law Case. Each play was first staged under significantly different circumstances within the theatrical landscape of Jacobean London, which makes them a singularly illustrative case study of how an early modern English dramatist adapted his style in order to meet the demands of the city’s diverse performance conditions.

Politeness as a Linguistic Concept in the Croatian and English Languages – a Comparative Analysis

Politeness as a Linguistic Concept in the Croatian and English Languages – a Comparative Analysis

Лексико-семантическая группа английских номинаций небольшого возвышения над землей как способ репрезентации типов знания

Based on the linguocognitive approach, the article studies the linguistic conceptualization of elevations of land in English. The material was obtained from authoritative English-English dictionaries and the British National Corpus. The aim was to identify peculiarities of linguistic conceptualization of the terrain by means of landscape words forming a lexico-semantic group and denoting an elevation of land. The author performed an etymological and component analysis of the meanings of elements of the lexico-semantic group using dictionary definitions of its lexical constituents, followed by a cognitive interpretation of the semantic components of the latter and a determination of the constitutive cognitive features of the images of the designated objects. It is concluded that the landscape nouns under study have two-dimensional meaning, which is determined by visual perception: the cognitive content of English nouns denoting an elevation of land represents not only structural knowledge – a form of categorization of information that is a given, existing knowledge representing the experience of all generations – but also phenomenological knowledge arising from sensory (immediate) observation. In addition, the author determined the ability of some of the sensually perceived features of landscape objects in the vertical space (shape, size) to serve as a cognitive basis for metaphorical images, which indicates that such features are of particular importance for the everyday life of British people. The results of this study have theoretical significance and contribute to further development of cognitive linguistics by revealing the cognitive mechanisms of perception, categorization and conceptualization of elevations of land.

Лінгвокультурний концепт ВИНОв українській мовній картині світу

The article deals with the research of the concept as one of the key linguistic notions. The characterization of different approaches to the definition of the notion in "concept" is suggested. The role of the concept in the formation of the national conceptual sphere is discussed. It is noted that the persistent interest of scientists only in certain aspects of the study of the conceptual sphere of "food" necessitates a holistic study of the linguistic and cultural concept of WINE, the study of language units in the synthesis of their semantic and functional specificity, the identification of the peculiarities of the generation of a linguistic sign, as well as the need to outline linguosemiotic and linguocultural of the parameters of the concept, evidenced primarily in literary samples and paremias. The relevance of the chosen topic is determined by the need to expand and significantly deepen knowledge about the linguistic representation of the linguistic and cultural concept WINE in the formation of a model of the Ukrainian mentality, which helps to reveal ways of interaction between the verbal and cultural codes of the nation. The purpose of the scientific work is to study the linguistic and cultural specificity of the concept of WINE in the Ukrainian National Linguistic Worldview. The essence of the concept of "linguistic and cultural concept" and "gastronomic discourse" was clarified in the studio; the linguistic and cultural content of Ukrainian pairs with the concept of WINE is determined; the syntagmatic relations of the name of the concept were analyzed; the mechanism of respondents’ perception of the WINE concept was investigated. The authors researche into the concept WINE (vyno) in Ukrainian linguistic worldview. The scientific novelty of the work lies in the fact that it examines the linguistic and cultural concept of WINE in the Ukrainian linguistic picture of the world. In the work, the elucidation of the features of the linguistic and cultural concept and gastronomic discourse was further developed, the linguistic and cultural content of paremy with the concept WINE was determined, and the syntagmatic connections of the name of the concept were investigated. In the future, we plan to investigate the linguistic and cultural specificity of other concepts related to the gastronomic discourse.

Historical and etymological aspect of the conceptual triad mercy-indifference-cruelty in English and Russian

The object of the study is the linguocultural triad mercy-indifference-cruelty in English and Russian. The subject of the study is nuclear lexemes that verbalize the linguistic and cultural concepts of mercy, indifference, cruelty in the compared languages. To reveal the essence of the concepts studied, etymological analysis of the lexemes-representatives, data from etymological dictionaries of English and Russian languages were used. The purpose of the study is to establish universal and idioethnic characteristics of the representatives of the conceptual triad mercy-indifference-cruelty in English and Russian. The following methods were used in the work carried out: semantic method, etymological method, comparative method, external reconstruction method. The scientific novelty of the work consists in the study of the linguistic and cultural concepts of mercy, indifference, cruelty in etymological perspective, which have not previously been studied in triadic relations when comparing English and Russian languages. As a result of the conducted research, we received information for the first time that nuclear lexemes verbalizing the concept of mercy in English and Russian at the initial stage of their functioning in the compared languages have similar motivation due to the presence of the first root of the Proto-Indo-European language. We have found evidence of a semantic shift in the perception of linguistic units representing the concept of indifference in English and Russian linguistic cultures in diachronic terms. A characteristic idioethnic feature of the representation of the concept of cruelty in the minds of native speakers of the Russian language is its ambiguity and dependence on casual attribution.

The history of science through the prism of race

Abstract One methodological approach to grasping a ‘big-picture’ history of modern science involves tracing the complex entanglements between scientific knowledge and the development of racism and racialized economic systems. Indeed, no historical account of any scientific field can be complete without acknowledging the role of race as an intellectual, social or economic factor. We substantiate this argument through a synthetic review of three overlapping threads in the historiography of science. First, historical research on ‘race science’ has analysed the formation of disciplines directly involved in constructing scientific concepts of race, including medicine, anthropology, linguistics, phrenology, psychology, archaeology and genetics. Second, historians have demonstrated that connections between race and science are not limited to the domain of race science. Rather, European imperial expansion, colonialism and capitalism created the foundational infrastructures undergirding the emergence of modern professional science. Finally, new research shows how race remains covertly embedded in theoretical frameworks, statistical formulae and technological devices still used by scientists today. Through these examples, we perceive a big-picture history of science in which its co-constitution with race links localized case studies and imperial narratives across space and time.

Аксиологические характеристики сюжетов в армянских литературных сказках

The paper deals with evaluative characteristics of a fairy tale subject plot treated as a structure of a story about miraculous events narrated mainly to young listeners or readers in an entertaining mode and meant to form in their mind the right world view. The components of a subject plot are its motifs – consequences of actions determined by the choice made by a hero and promoting certain values, norms and practices. A literary fairy tale is an elaborated variant of a folklore story, it usually has a more complicated line of events, it is characterized by individual style of a writer in narration and evaluation of the content, and a happy end is optional in it. The fairy tales by G. Agayan, O. Tumanyan, and S. Zoryan have been analyzed. Axiological properties of these subject plots have been explained. They promote universal human values and specific features of the Armenian world view. Such specificity consists in the description of Armenian realia (nature, dress, food, etc.), the proper names which reveal the heroes characters, the description of magical creatures who inhabit the fairy tale world of Armenia and neighboring countries (mainly vishaps and devas), and in linguistic cultural concepts reflecting severe conditions of life and survival and emphasizing the importance of craft as a personal status, the warmth of family ties, critical exposure of cruel authorities and intellectual incapacity of people.

Perception of Violence in Multimodal Text: Cross-Disciplinary Approach

The article deals with the linguistic and psychological concepts explaining the perception of multimodal texts that imply information about violence. The importance of the subject is verified by the task of countering the spread of ideologies of violence, extremism, and terrorism in Internet communication. The multimodal text is considered a popular means of propagating radical ideas relating to incitement to social discord. The absence of complex models explaining the transmission of violence through multimodal texts is observed. It is shown that linguistic and psychological concepts can be relevant resources for building such a model. The purpose of the article is to generalize concepts in the form of intra- and extralinguistic factors that determine the perception of information about violence in a multimodal text. The generalization of cognitive linguistic theories into the group of intralinguistic factors is complemented by the conclusion that the semantic structure of a multimodal text is formed by visual, sign, and verbal coding systems; the perception of information about violence is determined by the typicality of linguistic means and the presence of logical and semantic links between the elements of a multimodal text. The conclusion is made about the influence of aggressiveness, personal attitude toward violence, and the experience of using violence on the perception of multimodal information about violence by the reader. The article may be interesting to linguists, psychologists, and a wide range of researchers in the field of humanities and humanities-related social sciences.

Linguists and teachers collaborating in an ELA classroom: Teaching around the test

In this paper, a scholar of English Education (Michelle) and a linguist (Chris) discuss their four-week research study in a ninth-grade classroom. Highlighting the collaborations with the classroom teachers, this paper discusses the importance of integrating linguistic concepts with current curricular demands. A focus on the final activity, in which students were asked to explore how linguistic concepts relate to areas of the everyday world like social media and the law, demonstrates that students were able to engage with the linguistic concepts in critical and important ways. The paper finishes with a discussion of how linguists can consider future collaborations with stakeholders in K12 spaces, and the importance of integrating these concepts into the existing curriculum.

Bulgarian Language 1st – 4th Grade Teaching and the Contemporary Challenges

The article focuses on the teachers’ frequently made mistakes in the application of the methodical approach in Bulgarian language 1 st – 4 th grade lessons. Some of the problems with the interpretation of linguistic concepts, the Bulgarian language lesson structure and the used methods and techniques are commented. The common mistakes are illustrated with specific examples for the different learning situations of Bulgarian language lessons. Some methodical ideas for overcoming of the observed shortcomings are proposed.

STUDENTS’ PERCEPTION: A DIDACTICAL STUDY ON THE IMPACT OF CASE-BASED LEARNING AND TEAMWORK ON TEFL METHODOLOGY OF ENGLISH EDUCATION MASTER PROGRAM(S2BE)

This research explores students' perceptions of the evolving Case-Based “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” (TEFL) Methodology and Team Work to enhance learning outcomes. It investigates the integration of linguistic aspects and their alignment with practical applications. Employing qualitative Didactical Design Research (DDR), the study employs observation sheets, interview guides, and documentation as research tools. DDR introduces 'scientific imagination' and apperception to probe students' understanding of previously learned linguistic concepts. Anticipating diverse student responses, DDR ensures TEFL Methodology learning objectives are met. The study also examines the emerging 'needs analysis' trend, emphasizing student-centered learning's role in fostering didactic creativity and enhancing TEFL Methodology instruction. Cases and Team Work diversify didactic creativity, yielding contextually relevant instructional designs. The research seeks to shift TEFL Methodology learning towards fostering innovative conditions that empower students in reflective, self-directed learning, thereby enhancing TEFL knowledge and practical skills mastery.

LANGUAGE CONCEPTS «DAY» AND «NIGHT» IN THE POETIC WORLD OF F.I. TYUTCHEV (THE EXPERIENCE OF CORPUS RESEARCH)

The present study is devoted to the interpretation of linguistic concepts “Day” and “Night” in the artistic texts of the classic of Russian poetry F.I. Tyutchev. The research is carried out in an interdisciplinary aspect based on the linguistic understanding of the concept and the interpretation of this concept in the literary study of the poetic text. In addition, the research uses corpus linguistics methods and corpus technologies for the analysis of a work of art. The relevance of the topic selection is due to the increasing interest of scientists in corpus studies of literary text. The research has a scientific novelty, which is justified by the insufficient development of algorithms for corpus research of poetic text, especially in terms of identifying concepts and their interpretation. The paper comprehensively reveals the theoretical foundations of the study of concepts in various aspects: linguistic, literary, corpus. The works of Kazakhstani scientists on the concepts on the basis of which the theoretical basis of the study is being built are reflected. The structure of the concept, its types and relationship with the author's idea are revealed. In the practical part, the interpretation of the concepts “Day” and “Night” in the lyrics of F.I. Tyutchev is presented, a corpus study is conducted to identify the frequency of use of a particular concept, the relationship of the concept with the thematic focus of the poem and its ideological content, interesting observations and conclusions are made. In addition to the theoretical substantiation of the problem of interpretation of artistic concepts in a poetic text, the paper presents an algorithm for the study of the concepts “Day” and “Night” in F.I. Tyutchev's poems, based on work with the RNC (Russian National Corpus).

Identifying and Correcting Programming Language Behavior Misconceptions

Misconceptions about core linguistic concepts like mutable variables, mutable compound data, and their interaction with scope and higher-order functions seem to be widespread. But how do we detect them, given that experts have blind spots and may not realize the myriad ways in which students can misunderstand programs? Furthermore, once identified, what can we do to correct them? In this paper, we present a curated list of misconceptions, and an instrument to detect them. These are distilled from student work over several years and match and extend prior research. We also present an automated, self-guided tutoring system. The tutor builds on strategies in the education literature and is explicitly designed around identifying and correcting misconceptions. We have tested the tutor in multiple settings. Our data consistently show that (a) the misconceptions we tackle are widespread, and (b) the tutor appears to improve understanding.

Adjectival phraseological units in representing national worldview

The national identity of the language is reflected in its phraseological fund. The identification of the actual national features of the semantics of phraseological units is possible only on the basis of a comparison ofstable turns ofdifferent languages. To cany out a comparative analysis of phraseological units containing components denoting a value, it is necessary to establish the national features of the language worldview and trace the process of linguistic conceptualization of the value. Each language has its own method of conceptualizing reality, which has its own specific and universal features. A comparative cultural linguistics study of the fund of the English and Karakalpak languages makes it possible to determine the common and national in matters of perception of magnitude by representatives of the two peoples.

Linguistic and cultural features of the concept of «Beauty» in russian, english and karakalpak languages

This article describes the ways of expressing the concept of "beauty" in Russian, English and Karakalpak paremiological units, describes the corresponding linguistic means and reveals their linguistic and cultural features. The definition of the concept as a linguistic and cultural concept is given and a conclusion is drawn based on examples of the implementation of the concept of "beauty" in Russian, English and Karakalpak examples.

Delta-band Activity Underlies Referential Meaning Representation during Pronoun Resolution.

Human language offers a variety of ways to create meaning, one of which is referring to entities, objects, or events in the world. One such meaning maker is understanding to whom or to what a pronoun in a discourse refers to. To understand a pronoun, the brain must access matching entities or concepts that have been encoded in memory from previous linguistic context. Models of language processing propose that internally stored linguistic concepts, accessed via exogenous cues such as phonological input of a word, are represented as (a)synchronous activities across a population of neurons active at specific frequency bands. Converging evidence suggests that delta band activity (1-3 Hz) is involved in temporal and representational integration during sentence processing. Moreover, recent advances in the neurobiology of memory suggest that recollection engages neural dynamics similar to those which occurred during memory encoding. Integrating from these two research lines, we here tested the hypothesis that neural dynamic patterns, especially in delta frequency range, underlying referential meaning representation, would be reinstated during pronoun resolution. By leveraging neural decoding techniques (i.e., representational similarity analysis) on a magnetoencephalogram data set acquired during a naturalistic story-listening task, we provide evidence that delta-band activity underlies referential meaning representation. Our findings suggest that, during spoken language comprehension, endogenous linguistic representations such as referential concepts may be proactively retrieved and represented via activation of their underlying dynamic neural patterns.

Algorithms and Faith: The Meaning, Power, and Causality of Algorithms in Catholic Online Discourse

The purpose of this article is to present grassroots concepts and ideas about “the algorithm” in the religious context. The power and causality of algorithms are based on lines of computer code, making a society influenced by “black boxes” or “enigmatic technologies” (as they are incomprehensible to most people). On the other hand, the power of algorithms lies in the meanings that we attribute to them. The extent of the power, agency, and control that algorithms have over us depends on how much power, agency, and control we are willing to give to algorithms and artificial intelligence, which involves building the idea of their omnipotence. The key question is about the meanings and the ideas about algorithms that are circulating in society. This paper is focused on the analysis of “vernacular/folk” theories on algorithms, reconstructed based on posts made by the users of Polish Catholic forums. The qualitative analysis of online discourse makes it possible to point out several themes, i.e., according to the linguistic concept, “algorithm” is the source domain used in explanations of religious issues (God as the creator of the algorithm, the soul as the algorithm); algorithms and the effects of their work are combined with the individualization and personalization of religion; algorithms are perceived as ideological machines.

Лингвокультурное освоение заимствований в сетевом медиадискурсе как проявление процессов глокализации

The work analyzes some innovative phenomena in the Russian language as a manifestation of glocalization in the online media discourse. The article focuses on the phenomenon of linguacultural assimilation of borrowings, which consists in the lexical, word-formation, grammatical and linguapragmatic transformation of root or affix elements of foreign language origin in accordance with the original Russian models of language implementation of lexemes, word forms and pragmemes. This assimilation process reflects the principles of the linguistic conceptualization of the world characteristic of a particular nation. The purpose of the study is to describe the current linguistic, communicative, pragmatic, cognitive and discursive features of this process in the Russian online media discourse. The research is based on the principles of the cognitive and discursive approach, methods of integrative analysis of Internet communication, as well as on the ideas of pragmalinguistic description of the emotional and evaluative sphere of language signs. The language data of the newspaper corpus in the Russian National Corpus is analyzed. The features of acculturation of borrowings at the lexical and semantic, formal and grammatical levels of the language are described. Particular attention is paid to communicative and pragmatic cultural russification of foreign language elements, which lies in the fact that words with a foreign language component at a certain stage of their functioning expand the possible areas of use, going beyond the initially specialized area of use associated with the realities of computer technology, Internet communications and social networks. Based on the analysis of such lexemes as flud / fludit’, frend / frendit’, ban / banit’ (zabanit’), spam / spamit’ (zaspamit’), troll’ / trolit’ (zatrollit’), it is concluded that the reflexes of the language expansion of new formations with a foreign language component considered in the work contribute to increasing the expressive and linguacreative potential of the Russian language.

Reality as Technology, or Ontological Lexicon in Modern Processes Nomination

The study examines terminological nominations in the IT sphere in the Russian, which include lexicon denoting ontological concepts. The aim of the research is to identify a conceptual shift in the perception of reality, as explicit in new terminological nominations of the digital era (augmented reality, mixed reality, RR). Composite nominations with key nouns of ontological semantics were extracted from scientific and media discourse. Research methodology includes semantic and contextual analysis, interpretative analysis within the framework of the theory of linguistic conceptualization of the world. The following conclusions were drawn: the use of words of ontological semantics in IT technical terms reflects a technocentric view of objective reality, where its fundamentally significant role in human and societal organization is reimagined. The concept of “reality” is juxtaposed with the concept of “virtuality.” The “real reality” itself, designated as ‘RR’, is considered one of the components in the paradigm of immersive technologies. Semantic changes are evident in the adjective ‘realnyy’ [real]: in opposition to attributes like ‘virtualnyy’ [virtual], ‘onlayn’ [online], etc., it embodies a new semantic nuance ‘manifesting not in virtual space’, which becomes relevant in discussions about the role of digital technologies in life.

The Concept of “Dreams (While Sleeping)” in the Proverbial Context of the Russian and Kyrgyz Languages

This article conducts a linguistic and cultural analysis of proverbial expressions, we tried to identify the specifics of linguistic verbalization of the linguistic and cultural concept of “dreams (while sleeping) / сон (Russian) / түш (Kyrgyz)” in the Russian and Kyrgyz linguistic proverbial space. The combination of sustainable forms produces a proverbial space of language, which reflects the entire history of life, way of life and experience, folk observations, conclusions, traditions and customs of each nation. By conducting linguistic studies of each language, linguists identify the ethnocultural characteristics of each language, depending on such extralinguistic factors as: geographical location, mental processes in the consciousness of a certain ethnic group and worldview. The relevance of this survey is the importance of the linguistic and cultural concepts, semantic descriptions of the features of Russian and Kyrgyz paroemia, which are an integral part of the national linguistic picture of the world. The concepts of “dreams (while sleeping) / сон (Russian) / туш (Kyrgyz)” considered by are an important state of human existence, the basic concept of any linguistic culture.