Linguistic Evidence Research Articles

Sichuan Peppercorn and the Birth of Numbing Spices in East Asia

Sichuan peppercorn Zanthoxylum sp. is an important food condiment, currently used in East Asia and South Asia. In this paper, we review genetic, archaeological, and linguistic evidence regarding the use of Zanthoxylum by ancient human populations. The evidence from these three disciplines converge to suggest that its earliest attested use dates from the mid-fourth millennium BCE, in Western Sichuan, making it one of the oldest spices in East Asia. The paper also discusses how this spice was supplemented, and even superseded, by the introduction of the American Chili Pepper (Capsicum spp.). in the seventeenth century. We further argue that differences in the biosynthesis of numbing compounds between cultivars of Zanthoxylum sp. in northern and southern Western China that are due to deep evolutionary processes may have in turn influenced culinary preferences.

Birds in Medieval English Poetry: Metaphors, Realities, Transformations

Birds in Medieval English Poetry: Metaphors, Realities, Transformations

National Character of Linguocultural Units in the Creative Heritage of M.Zh. Kopeiuly

In this article, the national character of meaning and content in the linguistic and cognitive field of linguocultural units from the unique work of the famous poet, scientist Mashhur Zhusup is considered. It is not difficult to identify linguistic and cultural units in the works of Mashkhur Zhusup Kopeiuly, which reflect the characteristic features of the natural nature of the Kazakh people, the National way of thinking, and the traditional model of worldview. In the written heritage of Mashhur, which covers in detail the socio-social, spiritual and domestic state of the Kazakh country in that period, life and cultural background, economic care, Customs and traditions, thinking system and political and social cognition, there are many examples of literary and artistic methods and techniques. Based on linguistic and cultural units of national significance in the development of the spiritual heritage of mashhur Zhusup, the modernization of the scientific space of National Quality, the national consciousness of our people, which has been sharpened for many years, is an urgent problem today. The linguistic personality, which is determined based on ethno-cultural units in the writer's works, is studied from the point of view of national cognition, and specific conclusions are summed up. On the basis of the speeches of M.Zh. Kopeiuly, the features of the reflection of social changes in the life, Life principles and worldview of the people are formulated using examples from the course of his works in the journalistic genre in the creative world. Linguoculturology is one of the sciences that describes the linguistic and cultural information of the people's culture and the vocabulary of people who use this language, shows the national culture to other peoples through their spoken language, raises the status of the national spirit and language, brings the linguistic heritage of the country to its peak and transmits it to future generations, can both create and shine linguistic evidence in the national sign. Identification of linguistic and cultural models in the works of Mashhur Zhusup Kopeiuly and writing this scientific research work will allow us to deeply study modern culture, ethics, aesthetics, ethnolinguistics and, through this, to show the original character of the people, to convey to future generations the whole beauty and significance of the language.

Some linguistic features of the dialect of Acre and their possible explanation by the history of the city

Abstract This paper introduces the main characteristics of a variety of Acre Arabic spoken by local residents in Acre today. The description provided is based on new evidence gathered in 2016–17 through interviews with various people, particularly older people, who grew up in Acre. Throughout the paper I discuss a number of distinctive phonological, morphological and syntactical features and compare them to Palestinian Arabic, especially Galilean Arabic, and also to Old Damascene Arabic and Egyptian Arabic. While some features occur in Palestinian Arabic but under different circumstances, other features do not occur in Palestinian Arabic, but are characteristic of Syrian Arabic and/or Egyptian Arabic dialects. Features of the dialect that are unique to Acre are presented, along with some speculations on how the linguistic evidence reflects the history of the city. Finally, a transcribed and translated text is provided.

Some Pictorial Expressions of Samin al-Halabi, May God Have Mercy on Him, Part One

Al-Sameen Al-Halabi (may God have mercy on him) is considered one of the scholars who were interested in language, grammar, morphology, and interpretation. His book ``Umdat al-Hafiz to the Interpretation of Ashraf Words,'' a linguistic dictionary of the words of the Noble Qur'an, is the only evidence of his interest in grammar, language, and interpretation. The author arranged the words mentioned in the Qur'an according to the letters of the lexicon based on the origins of the word without its appendices. Then he mentions in each of its articles a linguistic analysis accompanied by a verse from the Qur'an, then with hadith, poetry, and sometimes with one of the proverbs. He was often found citing the sayings of the imams and the language to support the (linguistic) idea that he is discussing. He made strange hadiths in it as well and mentioned linguistic evidence, which is close to two thousand, with some grammatical and rhetorical benefits. Book with scientific indexes.
 Keywords: interpretation, the Qur'an, Al-Samin Al-Halabi, figurative expressions, the mayor of Al-Hafiz

Tracing Linguistic Evidence of Cultural Diversity: A Corpus-based Study

Various factors, including culture, indigenous languages, and social norms, shape English being spoken and written in a foreign context. To trace the influence of these various factors, several registers/ genres can be investigated. However, the newspaper register is the most suitable as it is close to everyday events to study how the language has undergone a change. This study seeks to investigate the influence of these factors on the English used in a foreign context and explores the patterns of linguistic variation in the corpus of Cultural news from South Asian countries. A corpus from South Asian countries was compiled. Biber's (1988) multidimensional model was used. ANOVA was applied to find the statistically significant differences. The results indicate that Cultural press reportage of all the countries varies in producing explicit, non-argumentative and abstract discourse. The results indicate that as the cultural press reportage of every country is different, English used in a foreign context differs in producing newspaper discourse.

Rethinking the Metre of Parzival: Iambic Verse for a Trochaic Language

AbstractThe Middle High German (MHG) prosodic foot is uncontroversially considered to be trochaic, a fact which has traditionally led scholars to assume a preference for trochaic metre in poetry of the MHG Classical Period. However, given the trend elsewhere in mediaeval Europe (even in trochaic languages) to emulate French lyrics and compose verse in iambic metre, the uncritical assumption of a trochaic metre in all MHG poetry seems inadequate. A close examination of Parzival, an early thirteenth‐century grail romance by Wolfram von Eschenbach, suggests that the traditional analysis is not only insufficient but counter to the linguistic evidence. This paper argues for the first time that Parzival was in fact composed in iambic tetrameter, based on a close analysis of the rhythmic alternations within lines and the quantity and foot structure of line‐final syllables. Halle & Keyser's (1966) principles for iambic metre were used to produce a taxonomy of possible line structures in Parzival and the dominance of the wswswsws pattern, beginning on a weak beat and ending on a strong, offers convincing evidence in favour of iambic metre. The remaining lines can be neatly categorised as iambic by allowing feminine rhyme (with an extrametrical schwa syllable) or the construction of monosyllabic feet from a single heavy syllable. This analysis is further corroborated by the consistently iambic structure of line‐final feet, as well as the foot structures avoided by the poet, identified according to the weight of the final, penultimate and antepenultimate syllables. The present analysis has the advantage of explaining the various patterns of alternating prominence in the metre of Parzival much more consistently than the complex system advocated by the traditional literary view.

The Guy Was a Toxic Player: The Discourse of Heterosexual Non-Marital-Relationship Breakups among Female Youth in Nigeria

ABSTRACT This article examines the subjective narratives and experiences of urban female youth in heterosexual-relationship breakups in the Calabar metropolis, southeastern Nigeria, where they “do gender” and reposition female heterosexuality in order to gain access to new social spaces. Drawing on ethnographic qualitative data sourced through purposive sampling and semi-structured interviews conducted with 30 participants who had unilaterally cut romantic ties in the previous eighteen months, I interrogate from participants’ nuanced perspectives their previous relationship quality, causes of breakups, and social and structural factors that informed their decision to quit from the account of “doing gender” – a social-constructionist approach to gender which conceives the phenomenon as a routine accomplishment embedded in everyday interaction that recreates and reinforces the cultural meaning of gender. The results, based on linguistic evidence, demonstrate that narratives of gender equality, access to secure livelihood, and needs for emotional well-being as motivators for ending relationships reflect an agentic shift in the way young Nigerian women enact gendered scripts in heterosexual partnerships. The study concludes that breakups provide avenues for participants to exercise autonomy in decision-making and to negotiate gender and sexuality under conditions of patriarchal dominance and inequality in-line with broader social changes.

Discourse in Billboard Woman of The Decade award: an actantial analysis

Examining how the meaning is made needs not only a description of how grammatical choices are categorized and explain the most used categories to directly grasp implied meaning but to see how humans use language to place narrative elements to configure the body of a story. The speech delivered by Taylor Swift as she entitled Woman of the Decade by Billboard music award in 2019 used to demonstrate this scheme. Halliday’s transitivity system is applied to see how it first works to realize the narrative that is directed by the actantial roles as suggested by Greimas’s narratology which then develops a discourse. Linguistic evidence in this speech is found to support the six actant roles filling three axes. The axis of desire puts the speaker herself as the subject pursuing the right to own and control her art in music with fair revenue flow in an inclusive work environment as the object. The axis of communication puts her experience, fans, and music as the sender to the quest that benefits the receivers who are the female singers and the younger generation. The axis of power insists on persistence, technology, social media, and peer support as the enabling aspect overcoming the opponent which are detractors, old scheme contracts in unregulated private equity, toxic male privilege, and harsh criticism led by impossible standards.

James Cowles Prichard and the Linguistic Foundations of Ethnology.

This article examines the English scholar James Cowles Prichard's attention to language and comparative philology within his wider project on the natural history of man. It reveals that linguistic evidence was among the most important elements for Prichard in his overarching scientific aim of investigating human physical diversity, and served as the evidential foundation for his ethnology. His work on Celtic comparative philology made him not only one of the earliest British adopters of German comparative grammar, but a comparative philologist of European stature in his own right. More generally, linguistic evidence helped Prichard to keep his magnum opus, Researches into the Physical History of Mankind, as logically ordered as possible, and therefore to turn ethnology into a discipline with analytical aspirations on a global scale.

Genome-wide allele and haplotype-sharing patterns suggested one unique Hmong–Mein-related lineage and biological adaptation history in Southwest China

BackgroundFine-scale genetic structure of ethnolinguistically diverse Chinese populations can fill the gap in the missing diversity and evolutionary landscape of East Asians, particularly for anthropologically informed Chinese minorities. Hmong–Mien (HM) people were one of the most significant indigenous populations in South China and Southeast Asia, which were suggested to be the descendants of the ancient Yangtze rice farmers based on linguistic and archeological evidence. However, their deep population history and biological adaptative features remained to be fully characterized.ObjectivesTo explore the evolutionary and adaptive characteristics of the Miao people, we genotyped genome-wide SNP data in Guizhou HM-speaking populations and merged it with modern and ancient reference populations via a comprehensive population genetic analysis and evolutionary admixture modeling.ResultsThe overall genetic admixture landscape of Guizhou Miao showed genetic differentiation between them and other linguistically diverse Guizhou populations. Admixture models further confirmed that Miao people derived their primary ancestry from geographically close Guangxi Gaohuahua people. The estimated identity by descent and effective population size confirmed a plausible population bottleneck, contributing to their unique genetic diversity and population structure patterns. We finally identified several natural selection candidate genes associated with several biological pathways.ConclusionsGuizhou Miao possessed a specific genetic structure and harbored a close genetic relationship with geographically close southern Chinese indigenous populations and Guangxi historical people. Miao people derived their major ancestry from geographically close Guangxi Gaohuahua people and experienced a plausible population bottleneck which contributed to the unique pattern of their genetic diversity and structure. Future ancient DNA from Shijiahe and Qujialing will provide new insights into the origin of the Miao people.

Challenging Folk-Linguistics: Grammatical and Spelling Variation in Students’ Writing in Hebrew on WhatsApp and in Essays

Abstract With the increasing use of mobile phones among young people, there is growing public concern about possible detrimental effects of digital writing on learners’ literacy and language skills. We ask whether and to what extent nonstandard forms typical of spoken Hebrew and of digital communication are also found in the formal writing of high-school students. To this end, we compare between two corpora of Modern Hebrew: a naturalistic corpus of 7,120 WhatsApp messages (35,085 words) written by 80 students in three classroom WhatsApp groups and a corpus of 291 school essays (34,700 words) written by 291 students. The findings indicate that a rather clear distinction is maintained between adherence to traditional formal writing in school essays as opposed to a more lenient approach on WhatsApp. The findings thus provide empirical linguistic evidence challenging the predominant folk-linguistic public ideology.

The use of linguistics to determine meaning in cases of personality infringement

Personality infringements through social media are not uncommon. Although many personality infringements can be linked to linguistics, given the fact that they take place in the form of written or spoken utterances, linguistic perspectives and theories are not commonly used to analyse evidence in possible personality infringement cases. This contribution aims to illustrate how linguistic theories can add value to the analysis of evidence in some personality infringement cases by investigating the word “fagott” and the potential reasons why it was misread as “faggot” in a given instance. The likeliness of one word being misread as another (and the implications thereof) is explored through pragmatic and psycholinguistic theories and is set against the backdrop of the law of personality. Data collected from English corpora complement the theories and help to illuminate why one word could be mistaken for the other. The article concludes that the linguistic evidence may be a valuable aid in determining whether personality infringements have taken place.

Prípad jednej nešťastnej anotácie, pseudovedeckého zborníka a zamyslenie sa nad indoeuropeistikou na Slovensku

In 2020 and 2021, a summary of the book Arctic Theory of Our Origin written by Russian ethnologist and Indologist Natalia Romanovna Guseva appeared in multiple places. This summary was written by Lenka Mihová and published in several journals: Cultural history, Studia Mythologica Slavica, and Literary magazine. This summary was written in a completely unprofessional manner and quoted absurd statements (for example, that Slovak writer Jozef Banáš was able to understand Indians in the Slovak language and they understood him), which showed that the author of this abstract was unable to approach this book critically. Based on this unfortunate summary, I decided to write a critique analysing Mihová’s problematic approach as well as the background of the published translation of Guseva’s compilation. In general, the “Arctic Theory” is an unscientific narrative without the support of any archaeological or relevant linguistic evidence, and it is popular amongst the esoteric and nationalistic groups in Russia and India. Neither the book’s slipshod translation nor Mihová’s summary are in line with the available knowledge of the Indo-European culture or comparative linguistics thereof. Both show a considerable lack of critical reflection or erudition to evaluate the material.

Gayr Kavramının Dilsel ve Istılahî Anlamları ve Klasik Kelâmın İlâhî Sıfatlar Anlayışına Etkileri

Some writers have suggested that the classical Sunni kalām theory of divine attributes, which states that the attributes are 'neither God' nor 'other than God,' should be interpreted to mean a denial of the law of excluded middle. Some also seek to build a new kalām without such a principle. Although the author holds such a view to be unintelligible on its own grounds, it also has no basis in the classical kalām theory. This paper shall present a detailed investigation into the meaning of ghayr, and demonstrate, with ample textual evidence, that the classical theory of divine attributes only means a denial of identity along with the denial of metaphysical separability from the divine essence. This paper demonstrates how the term ghayr applies in contexts of metaphysics, theology, and natural philosophy as well. The formula that ‘something is not identical with’ nor ‘other than’ is applied equally to any property of a subject which is necessary and inseparable from it. That is, it applies equally to created beings as well. The paper shall begin with a linguistic discussion of the term ghayr, in order to demonstrate that it is not a negation in the Arabic language, but actually an adjective which also functions to form an exceptive clause. This proves that the formula on the divine attributes does not imply a rejection of excluded middle even at the basic linguistic level. Then the paper will discuss the term ghayr in technical contexts. This discussion does not limit itself to any school, but the discussion is based on four main sources: (1) the Maqālāt of al-Kaʿbī of the Muʿtazilī school; (2) the Maqālāt of al-Ashʿarī, (3) the Kitāb al-Tawḥīd and (4) the Taʾwīlāt of al-Māturīdī. Much attention is given to the latter because of claims by some that Māturīdī has a unique position on ghayriyya which implies the rejection of the law of excluded middle. There is no indication at all that such a formula implied a denial of the laws of logic. Claims to the contrary have failed to provide any linguistic or textual evidence for their interpretation, let alone philosophical justification for such a farfetched view.

The Eleventh-Century ‘N’ Psalter from England: New Pieces of the Puzzle

Abstract This paper presents an analysis of two recently found fragments of a Latin psalter with a continuous Old English gloss. The fragments were used as endleaf guards in an early modern book from the collection of Samuel Meienreis, currently held at the C. Norwid Library in Elbląg. We argue that the newly found parchment pieces match four other membra disiecta from the same eleventh-century codex produced in England. Since the formerly identified fragments were removed from the bindings of unknown books, their provenance and the origin of the manuscript from which they were removed have not been established, so far. The new findings partially fill this gap. In this paper we explore palaeographical and linguistic evidence, and the historical context of the manuscript waste found in Elbląg in an attempt to reconstruct the history of the so-called N Psalter to which all the extant pieces once belonged.

Modelling the Dynamics of Language Change: Logistic Regression, Piotrowski’s Law, and a Handful of Examples in Polish

ABSTRACT The study discusses modelling diachronic processes by logistic regression. The phenomenon of nonlinear changes in language was first observed by Raimund Piotrowski (hence labelled as Piotrowski’s law), even if actual linguistic evidence often speaks against using the notion of a ‘law’ in this context. In our study, we apply logistic regression models to changes which occurred between 15th and 18th century in the Polish language. The attested course of the majority of these changes closely follow the expected values, which proves that the language change might indeed resemble a nonlinear phase change scenario. We also extend the original Piotrowski’s approach by proposing polynomial logistic regression for these cases which can hardly be described by its standard version. Also, we propose to consider individual language change cases jointly, in order to inspect their possible collinearity or, more likely, their different dynamics in the function of time. Last but not least, we evaluate our results by testing the influence of the subcorpus size on the model’s goodness-of-fit.

Luxuriant and Well-Fatted: The Meaning of מעדנת in 1 Sam 15:32

Abstract The meaning of מעדנת in 1 Sam 15:32 is disputed, variously being translated “trembling,” “in chains,” or “cheerfully.” Based on linguistic and contextual evidence, I argue that it is best translated “luxuriantly” or “well-fatted,” and depicts Agag like a fattened animal going to slaughter.

Culture and Explicitness of Persuasion: Linguistic Evidence From a 51-Year Corpus-Based Cross-Cultural Comparison of the United Nations General Debate Speeches Across 55 Countries (1970-2020)

The explicitness of expression or persuasion has been a critical subject of study in cross-cultural studies. The majority of cross-cultural comparisons in this respect, however, have been based on questionnaires and surveys. This study seeks to diversify the methods and validate the results with a corpus-based register analytical approach. Based on the United Nations General Debate Corpus (UNGDC) that comprises comparable multi-cultural speeches, a diachronic comparison (1970-2020) is made between the 2518 speeches (altogether 7,090,221 tokens) of 55 cultures from the East (East, South, and Southeast Asia) and the West (European Union, North America, and Australia) on the dimension ‘explicitness of persuasion’, a synthesized variable operationalized with 6 linguistic features, with the register analytical framework of Multi-Dimensional Analysis (MDA). The potential impacts of the political contexts on the cross-cultural gap in persuasion explicitness are tentatively discussed with the case studies on China and the United States. The results reveal significant difference between the exemplars from the East and the West on the overtness of persuasion, and the gap is generally narrowing down over the 51 years. The quantitative results provide political-setting linguistic evidence for the relevant findings of Hall, Hofstede, and Inglehart & Welzel, and the narrowing gap between cultures from the East and the West in the explicitness of expression points to an open and dynamic view of cultures. This study may offer implications for further research on the cultural styles of political persuasion.

Ascertaining the Juridical Basis of International Law by Analyzing the Move-structures of Treaties: A Possible Linguistics-oriented Exploration?

Treaties (conventions), international custom and the general principles of law generally constitute the formal sources of international law. The present linguistics-oriented study of exploring the juridical basis of international law specifically focuses on analyzing that of treaties. An empirical study of the linguistic expressions and forms of the treaties is supposed to probe into what the contracting parties really think when adopting the treaty texts. It applies the move structure approach of English linguistics for the purpose of ascertaining the juridical basis of treaties. After the generalization of a prototypical six-move-structure existing in treaties, this article specially makes a focal study on the second and third moves of the treaties, managing to find out the linguistic evidence of ascertaining the juridical basis of the treaties. “The Contracting Parties’ Shared Conviction in Common Good as opinio juris” in Step 1 of “Move 2 Establishing Contextual Foundations for the Present Legislation” is ascertained as the juridical basis of international law from the linguistics-oriented perspective.