Linguistic Strategies Research Articles

Scaffolding the human partner by contrastive guidance in an explanatory human-robot dialogue.

Explanation has been identified as an important capability for AI-based systems, but research on systematic strategies for achieving understanding in interaction with such systems is still sparse. Negation is a linguistic strategy that is often used in explanations. It creates a contrast space between the affirmed and the negated item that enriches explaining processes with additional contextual information. While negation in human speech has been shown to lead to higher processing costs and worse task performance in terms of recall or action execution when used in isolation, it can decrease processing costs when used in context. So far, it has not been considered as a guiding strategy for explanations in human-robot interaction. We conducted an empirical study to investigate the use of negation as a guiding strategy in explanatory human-robot dialogue, in which a virtual robot explains tasks and possible actions to a human explainee to solve them in terms of gestures on a touchscreen. Our results show that negation vs. affirmation 1) increases processing costs measured as reaction time and 2) increases several aspects of task performance. While there was no significant effect of negation on the number of initially correctly executed gestures, we found a significantly lower number of attempts-measured as breaks in the finger movement data before the correct gesture was carried out-when being instructed through a negation. We further found that the gestures significantly resembled the presented prototype gesture more following an instruction with a negation as opposed to an affirmation. Also, the participants rated the benefit of contrastive vs. affirmative explanations significantly higher. Repeating the instructions decreased the effects of negation, yielding similar processing costs and task performance measures for negation and affirmation after several iterations. We discuss our results with respect to possible effects of negation on linguistic processing of explanations and limitations of our study.

Grice's Maxims in Moroccan EFL: A Cultural Approach through Optimality Theory

The primary objective of the present study is to examine the structure of Grice's Maxims within the particular cultural setting of Morocco. The aim of this investigation is to scrutinize the impact of societal expectations and linguistic strategies on the production of conversational implicatures in the Moroccan cultural context. The present investigation employs Optimality Theory as a theoretical framework to examine a range of factors, such as power dynamics, social distance, politeness, sarcasm, and specific linguistic characteristics within the social and cultural context of Moroccan Arabic. This study argues that an understanding of the appropriate use of conversational implicatures enhances the cross-cultural competence of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) Moroccan Learners. The findings reveal the complexity of various constraints that shape the process of Moroccan conversational decision-making, unveiling noteworthy differences in comparison to the norms common to Western culture. The employment of the participant observation technique enabled a thorough investigation that was authentic and culturally sensitive, thereby enriching the understanding of conversational implicatures in a diverse global setting.

Code-switching as a bilingual and multilingual linguistic strategy in the construction of Amathaf’entandabuzo

Code-switching in spoken modes has now been studied fairly extensively and is better understood at the conversational as well as the scholarly level. In a multilingual and multicultural society such as South Africa, code-switching is not only a conventional communicative strategy, but also a blueprint that is used in modern isiXhosa literature in prose narrative and poetry. Given that, this article uses a selected isiXhosa drama to underline how and why code-switching is utilised as a linguistic phenomenon. The debates here are inspired by the deficit in the scholarly examination of isiXhosa literature hinging on isiXhosa linguistics. Note-taking, which is subsumed under qualitative research methodology, is employed to examine the isiXhosa drama as a source of data, while code-switching is used as a theoretical perspective. It must be stressed that this article does not try to unravel the drama in respect of theoretical literary underpinnings, but focuses on the discourses concerning code-switching as a linguistic occurrence in constructing and assembling isiXhosa literature. Finally, concluding remarks, as well as recommendations, are presented for future scholarly debates for the very reason that seeks to advance isiXhosa linguistics.

‘Trapping my way up’: a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of Black Sherif’s songs

ABSTRACT Taking cognisance of the social and linguistic power of trap music and its song lyrics as crucial avenues for language use in society, this study set out to conduct a corpus-assisted discourse analysis of selected song lyrics of Black Sherif. The study synergised Wmatrix and a socio-cognitive approach to CDA to interpret the song lyrics. The analyses revealed three linguistic strategies: (a) pronouns; (b) Ghanaian Student Pidgin; and (c) metaphors in the song lyrics that served as a means of empowering the youth to survive and strive for success despite social and psychological aggressions in life. Also, the individualistic self-representation in the song lyrics included plural identities of people who share a common experience of struggle, pain, survival, and self-empowerment. Finally, the study highlighted crucial societal issues, such as economic hardship and social injustice, that may otherwise be overlooked or underrepresented in mainstream media or academia. Based on these findings, the study provides recommendations for practice and further research.

‘From there everything changed’: conversion narrative in the biomimicry movement

ABSTRACT An increasingly influential approach to solving human ecological problems is an innovative design practice known as biomimicry. The Biomimicry Institute, a major stakeholder in the Biomimicry Movement, promotes biomimicry as a practice that mimics nature’s genius to solve human challenges and provides hope of sustainable futures. Despite increasing global interest in the practice, so far little is known about the value placed on biomimicry within practitioner communities. Employing a corpus-assisted discourse-analytic approach, this paper explores the ways video narratives shared by practitioners affiliated with and curated by the Biomimicry Institute position biomimicry as a sacred practice. Drawing on Stibbe’s ecolinguistic approach and Hobbs’ functional religious language framework, we observe an overarching discursive pattern of conversion narrative (incorporating both personal and collective storylines) which highlights the sacred significance of the movement. We explore how the linguistic strategies underlying these conversion narratives centre human experience, mark group identity and attract new converts, while constructing an ecologically ambivalent discourse. In particular, we find that use of vague language obscures the precise nature of involvement in the movement and blurs the lines between member and non-member, contributing to the conversion narratives’ potential as powerful proselytising tools.

Scrutinizing the relationship between language proficiency and the use of mitigated devices by Saudi learners

This study explored the intricate relationship between language proficiency and the utilization of mitigated devices among Saudi learners. Mitigated devices refer to linguistic strategies employed to soften or moderate speech acts, such as hedging, mitigation, and indirectness, which play a crucial role in effective communication. Understanding the connection between language proficiency and mitigated devices usage among Saudi learners not only contributes to the field of linguistics but also holds significance for cross-cultural communication and education. It provided insights into the challenges faced by learners and offers guidance for fostering more culturally sensitive and effective communication strategies. To achieve this aim, 98 Saudi learners took part in this study from PSAU by replying on the Discourse Completion Test. Findings showed a significant influence of language proficiency on using internal modifications devices. Regarding the influence of social variables, advanced learners were more conscious of the effect of social power and distance in altering their strategy depending on the contextual variables. The study concluded with practical recommendations for learners, educators, and policymakers to improve language proficiency and intercultural communication competence among Saudi learners. These recommendations aimed to facilitate more effective and contextually appropriate communication in academic, professional, and social settings.

German Loans in Early English

The paper outlines the contribution of German to the word stock of English in the three periods of Old English, Middle English, and Early Modern English, or, in other words, from the early Middle Ages up to 1700, and relates these words to major cultural events, such as the Christianisation of England, the Norman Invasion, the Reformation and to the beginnings of science and technology during the Renaissance. Methodologically, the term German will be used in the sense of High German and its antecedents rather than Low German or Low Dutch. As a consequence of this approach, the impact of German on the English language during these periods is rather small in terms of numbers, but interesting and varied as far as domains of borrowing, transmission routes of words, linguistic strategies (i.e. importation v. substitution), and mode of transmission (i.e. written v. spoken) are concerned.

Source text ideological load modulates ideological shifts in interpreting right-wing and left-wing political discourse, but interpreters’ political orientation does not

As the public sphere is undergoing a process of ideological radicalization, simultaneous interpreting has been explored as a potential factor in shaping multilingual political debates. This paper investigates the notion of ideological shift between source texts and target texts in interpreting – the weakening or strengthening of ideologically loaded language in political discourse. Research paradigms from Interpreting Studies and Critical Discourse Studies are combined to conduct an experimental study in which political speeches controlled for their ideological orientation are interpreted by experienced interpreters working in the English – Polish language combination. Additionally, the participants’ political views are measured using the euandi 2019 questionnaire – a valid and reliable tool situating interpreters on the political spectrum. Initial assessment of linguistic strategies employed in target text renditions using tools of the Discourse-Historical Approach is followed by a quantitative analysis. The results indicate that highly ideologically loaded source texts, regardless of their ideological orientation, are shifted more often than those with a less salient ideological load. The political orientation of the interpreters themselves appears to have no significant effect on the presence of ideological shifts in target texts. These results contribute to the growing body of knowledge on interpreter agency and the pivotal role of the process of interpreting on discourse co-construction.

An application of cognitive diagnostic models in the evaluation of reading comprehension in Chilean university students

Reading Comprehension skills are fundamental to the academic performance of university students. These abilities are not innate; therefore, systematic training is required before entering university. The main objective of this study was to evaluate the reading comprehension skills of Chilean University Students. Method: A sample of 579 students participated in the study, responding to four texts that comprise the Reading Comprehension Strategies for University Students (ELCU). An automated platform was used to apply and correct the test with immediate results and feedback. The tool allowed the use of a broad and representative sample of the various regions of Chile. The ELCU was developed using a cognitive diagnostic assessment (CDA) considering cognitive, metacognitive and linguistic strategies. The analyses were performed using two different approaches: The Linear Logistic Test Model (LLTM) and the deterministic inputs, noisy “and” gate (DINA) model. Results: The rejection of the LLTM implies that the strategies do not differ in cognitive complexity (difficulty) while the adequate goodness of fit to the DINA model allows to characterise the students according to their reading abilities. Conclusion: The ELCU test provides reliable and valid information on the reading comprehension ability and metacognitive awareness of university students.

Speech Act Set in TripAdvisor Conflictive Exchanges

Abstract In the present article, taking a ‘polylogal’ perspective, we carry out a cross-linguistic analysis of speech act sets in conflictive exchanges (SASCs) on TripAdvisor (TA) in Spanish and Italian. These exchanges involve, on one hand, reviewer opinions concerning hospitality and travel experiences and, on the other, hospitality/travel-industry representative responses to form a review-response pair that is part of a polylogue with other TA users. These exchanges are characterised as potentially conflictive since, where travellers rate their experiences as poor, this micro-act of complaint may be responded to in a more or less confrontational fashion with hospitality-industry representatives responding in ways that either encourage, minimise, or avoid conflict. Our research is based on a total of 1,000 TripAdvisor (TA) posts forming two sub-corpora (Spanish and Italian) each of 500 review-response pairs where users gave opinions concerning their experiences of certain hotels or restaurants and were responded to by representatives from these hotels or restaurants. Our objective is to analyse these SASCs in order to identify a) the different categories of SASCs used in, firstly, reviews (opposition) and, secondly, in responses (reactions); b) to what extent each of these categories are used; c) if there is variation between the Spanish and Italian sub-corpora in terms of the use of different types of SASCs in opposition and reaction, and finally, d) how this variation might be related to sociocultural factors in the two sub-corpora. Data show several dissimilarities between the Spanish and Italian sub-corpora in terms of communication strategies used on the TA platform. For example, Italian hotel/restaurant representatives adopted a confrontational style using mostly unmitigated disagreement, acts of disqualification or self-praise while, in contrast, Spanish respondents were more supportive using mostly convivial acts, mitigating supportive moves and linguistic strategies. Besides giving a range of insights into cross-cultural variation in digital communication strategies, this work also provides a methodological model for the analysis of macro conflictive speech acts and their modification strategies. It is hoped that this model will prove useful in future research concerning digital communication, especially TA exchanges.

Unveiling the Subtle Art of Politeness: An Analysis of Jordanian Educators’ Deployment of Linguistic Strategies in the Official WhatsApp Group

The advent of the digital landscape has significantly transformed the communication practices of educators. Within this evolving context, an intriguing aspect that warrants scholarly investigation is their politeness strategies within official institutional WhatsApp groups. It aims to shed light on the complexities of educators’ interactions in the digital environment by closely examining their linguistic choices. The application of politeness expressions among teachers themselves and in their interactions with superiors proves to be a beneficial strategy for achieving effective communication. Using an ethnographic method, the careful observation of 163 messages shared by 20 teachers in the official WhatsApp groups was conducted over six months. The comprehensive politeness framework proposed by Brown and Levinson (1987) provided the foundation for the discursive analysis, complemented by the insightful perspective of Holmes and Stubbe (2015). This study unravels Jordanian English language teachers’ strategic deployment of all four politeness strategies in the official WhatsApp group. Positive politeness emerges as teachers’ predominant strategy to cultivate a sense of closeness and maintain harmonious relationships among colleagues and superiors. Interestingly, teachers display heightened awareness of their linguistic choices when addressing leaders, employing positive politeness to convey deference. In contrast, when communicating with colleagues of equal status, they often opt for a more direct and explicit “bald-on-record” approach. It is noteworthy that superiors also exhibit a discerning awareness of their linguistic choices, employing an “off-record” strategy when addressing faculty members. This study has implications for enhancing a supportive work environment for educators by providing insights into effective communication, professional relationships, and positive teaching settings.

Bloggers’ Speech Behavior: Analysis and Diagnosis of Personal Traits from the Perspective of Implicit and Functional Pragmalinguistics

The aim of this paper is to present a comprehensive methodology for conducting both traditional and modified content analysis using transcripts of spoken language from video bloggers as source material. The specific focus of this research centers around video content dedicated to reviewing retro automotive vehicles. The authors delve into two fundamental branches of pragmalinguistics, namely the implicit and functional aspects, while also detailing the analytical techniques employed within these paradigms. The practical application of these methods is illustrated using the oral speeches of the blogger Alexander Chikunov as a case study, providing a clear and tangible demonstration of the process for diagnosing individual personality traits. The initial phase involves an analysis of the material through the lens of implicit pragmalinguistics, encompassing the frequency analysis of speech patterns within the context of selected linguistic strategies, coupled with rigorous statistical data processing. The outcomes pertaining to a specific blogger are subsequently juxtaposed against data from other bloggers within the same genre, thereby facilitating the identification of shared, stereotypical, and unique personality characteristics attributed to the blogger. Moving forward, this article highlights individual traits of the blogger, which were discerned through traditional content analysis techniques. Finally, the study involves an insightful interpretation of the acquired data, culminating in the development of a nuanced portrait of Alexander Chikunov’s speech behavior. A notable aspect of this research lies in its pioneering effort to discern and systematize linguistic features exclusively found within the domain of video blogs. This is achieved by utilizing unscripted spoken language from bloggers as empirical evidence, adding a distinctive dimension to the study’s scientific novelty.

LINGUISTIC ANALYSIS OF ISIS’ MISCONTEXTUALISATION OF THE QURANIC VERSES: PROPAGANDA STRATEGY

The key multilingual propaganda documents and media modes have been used as primary sources for Islamic State of Iraq and Syria’s (ISIS) propaganda strategy. To further expand the discussion on the propaganda intentions by ISIS, the researchers demonstrated the study conducted that attempted to explore the role of miscontextualisation of Qur’anic verses through ISIS’s linguistic propaganda strategy from a socio-political perspective. The study seeks to illustrate how ISIS utilised its miscontextualisation of Qur’anic verses through its linguistic propaganda strategy to justify its extreme actions for achieving the socio-political goals. It uses linguistic stylistics to demonstrate that ISIS made a piece-meal usage of the Qur’an by miscontextualisation of Qur’anic verses through its propaganda publications to justify its extreme actions. It systematically situates the particular Qur’anic passages that ISIS uses within the wider Qur’anic passages/chapters in which they originate. More specifically, this contextualisation highlights the discrepancies between the original contexts of these passages and their miscontextualisation by ISIS. The results of the study revealed that all linguistic strategies that comprise ISIS’s discourse revolve around four main themes: Khilaafah, Imamah, Jihad, and Hijrah. These connections are important because they clarify the priorities inherent in ISIS’s discourse as an instrument for achieving socio-political gains and agendas.

An Analysis of the Social Roles and Practices and Interactional Metadiscoursal Resources in American Former President Trump’s Facebook Text Messages

Facebook is a means of interaction through which individuals most frequently relate to others. Most of the studies that have attempted to analyze Trump’s messages or speeches were descriptive. They have not critically pinpointed some of the socio-cultural motivations that have given rise to the linguistic options utilized by the writer. Therefore, the present study purports to critically analyze the experiential social roles and practices articulated by Trump's Facebook messages and the socio-cultural factors motivating these roles. It also attempts to examine the interactional meta-discoursal persuasive linguistic strategies employed to qualify these roles and practices. To this end, a corpus of two hundred posted texts was selected from Donald Trump’s personal Facebook page. We drew on Van Laween’s (2008) CDA model and Hyland’s (2005) interactional meta-discourse framework to analyze these texts. The results have provided insights about Trump’s identity and his various relationships. Trump utilized a high frequency of active material social processes to construct a positive image of himself as an active leader who shares common concerns with his audience, whereas he evaluated his opponents negatively by presenting them as always being involved in negative social processes. Besides, he utilized certain interactional cues to affect his addressees’ attitude in order to secure their positive reaction to the propositional content and to involve them collaboratively through his messages. Keywords: Interactional Meta-Discourse, Social Processes, Trump, Critical Discourse Analysis.

A corpus-assisted analysis of indexical signs for (im)politeness in Japanese apology-like behaviour

Abstract This study provides a corpus-assisted pragmatic investigation of three Japanese expressions: the adverb chotto ‘a little’, the verb-ending form -te shimau, conveying (formulaic) regret, and the conditional clause with -tara. These are deictic forms I refer to as indexical signs for (im)politeness because they can, under certain circumstances, trigger evaluations in terms of (im)politeness, potentially favouring an indirect interpretation of the utterance. They are investigated in co-occurrence with apology-like behaviour based on the assumption that, in this context, interactants are more likely to exploit linguistic strategies for conveying additional layers of pragmatic meaning. The main findings point to a wide range of possible interactional meanings the selected forms can acquire in naturally occurring data, from affecting the illocutionary force of the utterance, to conventionally matching interactants’ expectations, to conveying a potentially face-threatening act. These results support the assumption that seemingly polite speech acts will not necessarily be doing polite work (or not only) and highlight the relevance of the interactional context for retrieving communicative meanings.

Please wear a face mask: The role of British business in regulating mask-wearing through signage

This research analyses the linguistic strategies for identity construction in 246 mask-wearing signs collected from the businesses on four prosperous roads of Brighton and Hove during the pandemic. In regulating mask-wearing through signage, businesses could adopt one of four roles: (1) spokesperson for the guidance, (2) independent order giver, (3) emotional persuader, (4) strict caveator; or choose to integrate two or three of these roles. In the surveyed area most businesses preferred to act as independent order givers and instruct customers directly to wear face coverings for public health through imperative directives.This case study describes what directives were employed in terms of agency and politeness to display businesses’ stance or engagement in regulatory signs when public health was under challenge. It is intended to categorise directives in mask signage in relation to agency, politeness and identity, and explore the basic features of English regulatory signage on public health in business setting.

Patients resist, doctors manage

Abstract Although there are abundant studies on the management of patient resistance in traditional face-to-face clinical settings, scant attention has been paid to that in the online context. This study thus delves into the types of patient resistance and the strategies Chinese doctors employ to manage such resistance in Online Medical Consultation (OMC). A dataset of 148 online doctor-patient conversations was collected from Chunyu Doctor. Three types of patient resistance – expertise-oriented, experience-oriented, and emotion-oriented – are identified and analyzed in Chinese OMC. Accordingly, Chinese doctors generally adopt linguistic strategies such as interpretives to justify decisions, supportives to facilitate relational work, and imperatives in the event of persistent resistance. Furthermore, the management of patient resistance is discussed as a joint goal-centered activity in Chinese OMC, aiming to contribute to a comprehensive understanding of the shared decision-making process in Chinese health communication.

Strong and weak language styles from a cosmological point of view

This study entitled “Powerful and Powerless Language from a Sociolinguistics Perspective” aims to identify linguistic and non-linguistic criteria of powerful and powerless speech styles and to find methods of a suitable theoretical and practical framework for sociolinguistics research in Kurdish. The importance of the study is that: (a) it explains how to distinguish between strong and weak styles, which are related to both the concepts of “power language” (element, age, social status) and “language of power” (It covers all abilities of an individual in drafting and organizing expressions effectively and attractively), (b) According to the researcher’s knowledge, this method has not been implemented in Kurdish to distinguish between powerful and powerless styles of language. The research consists of two parts. The first part is devoted to introducing the concept of individual power in language, also the source of this power and its impact on persuading recipients is intensively discussed. The second part examines the linguistic strategies that are the main tools of contemporary research, on the one hand, these strategies appear as criteria for distinguishing and identifying strong and weak styles of language (all Kurdish language researchers rely on them). The study has also proved that these strategies alone cannot succeed criteria, unless the dimensions of environment, element, age and social status of speaker and recipient are taken into account.

Lexical Competence Formative Control in Development of Intercultural Foreign Language Communicative Competence of Prospective German Language Teachers

Introduction. The article examines the formative control of lexical competence in the conditions of the formation of intercultural communication in the German language. Attention is focused on the interrelation of control objects with the educational program of specialty 014 “Secondary education.” Purpose. The paper shows successful mastery of the lexical aspect; it depends on certain linguistic strategies, expressed through techniques, methods, and means of their implementation. The objects of lexical competence control are described and examples of types of exercises for their implementation are given. Methods. The professional competencies of the educational program have been analyzed and knowledge, skills, and abilities were singled out as objects of lexical competence control in the German language. The professional literature on the issue of control/self-control, and evaluation/self-evaluation in the process of formation of foreign language skills and abilities have been analyzed. Results. The importance of the linguistic base for the development of intercultural foreign language communicative competence of prospective German language teachers is noted. Improving lexical skills and abilities through using a variety of lexical and phraseological units optimizes the acquisition of cultural knowledge about the countries and languages being studied. With the help of the lexical aspect, it is possible to form a linguistic picture of the world, to reproduce the value orientations of the peoples whose language has become the subject of study. Conclusion. Thus, examples of communicative productive exercises using the method of problem-based learning and a cultural assimilator for lexical competence formative control are given. The course of exercises is described, and attention is also focused on their content, the intercultural aspect of which determines the national-cultural characteristics of the German language.

“How will God hear us?”: Sonic and linguistic difference among Kinshasa’s Églises des Noirs

AbstractThis article studies how anti-Christian, ‘traditionally African’ organizations, locally known as Églises des Noirs, navigate religious competition in the Congolese capital through sonic and linguistic strategies. It focuses on the understudied Mpadist community, a ‘dissident’ branch of the better known Kimbanguist church. Mpadists mobilize diverging appreciations and meanings of sound and language to set themselves apart from the dominant Lingalaphone Pentecostal loudness of the city. In doing so, they pursue a delicate balance between Kongo traditionalism, the source of their spiritual legitimacy, rooted in colonial prophetic movements, and tactics of ‘modern’ community making in order to remain competitive within Kinshasa’s prolific religious setting. The article argues that ideologies of sound and language should be analysed within the same nexus, for they operate and are operationalized in similar ways. It therefore proposes to expand the sociolinguistic notion of indexicality to incorporate elements of the volume and modalities of sound making. The article also shows that sonic and linguistic ideologies are bound by context. In Kinshasa’s ‘low-fi’ soundscape, the indexical values of the languages Kikongo and Lingala, and of unamplified and amplified sound production, share similar features, yet they are evaluated differently in rural ‘hi-fi’ sonic environments.