Linguistic Vehicle Research Articles

Topology-Level Reactivity in Distributed Reactive Programs

Reactive programming is a popular paradigm to program event-driven applications, and it is often proposed as a paradigm to write distributed applications. One such type of application is *prosumer* applications, which are distributed applications that both produce and consume many events. We analyse the problems that occur when using a reactive programming language or framework to implement prosumer applications. We find that the assumption of an open network, which means prosumers of various types spontaneously join and leave the network, can cause a lot of code complexity or run-time inefficiency. At the basis of these issues lies *acquaintance management*: the ability to discover prosumers as they join and leave the network, and correctly maintaining this state throughout the reactive program. Most existing reactive programming languages and frameworks have limited support for managing acquaintances, resulting in accidental complexity of the code or inefficient computations. In this paper we present acquaintance management for reactive programs. First, we design an *acquaintance discovery* mechanism to create a *flock* that automatically discovers prosumers on the network. An important aspect of flocks is their integration with reactive programs, such that a reactive program can correctly and efficiently maintain its state. To this end we design an *acquaintance maintenance* mechanism: a new type of operator for functional reactive programming languages that we call `deploy-*`. The `deploy-*` operator enables correct and efficient reactions to time-varying collections of discovered prosumers. The proposed mechanisms are implemented in a reactive programming language called Stella, which serves as a linguistic vehicle to demonstrate the ideas of our approach. Our implementation of acquaintance management results in computationally efficient and idiomatic reactive code. We evaluate our approach quantitatively via benchmarks that show that our implementation is efficient: computations will efficiently update whenever a new prosumer is discovered, or a connected prosumer is dropped. To evaluate the distributed capabilities of our prototype implementation, we implement a use-case that simulates the bike-sharing infrastructure of Brussels, and we run it on a Raspberry Pi cluster computer. We consider our work to be an important step to use functional reactive programming to build distributed systems for open networks, in other words, distributed reactive programs that involve many prosumer devices and sensors that spontaneously join and leave the network.

Islam, language and intra-Asian student mobility

Abstract In this study I examine the interplay of Islam, Arabic and intra-Asian student mobility. Specifically, through semi-structured interviews with three Indonesian male students who are pursuing their Arabic medium of instruction (AMI) degrees in Islamic Sharia at the Islamic University of Madinah in Saudi Arabia, I investigate two central questions: (1) What are the driving forces behind Indonesian Muslim students’ mobility to Saudi Arabia for pursuing their degrees in AMI? (2) How do Indonesian Muslim students perceive Arabic in general and AMI programs in particular? The findings reveal that the participants’ desire to move and pursue their AMI degrees in Saudi Arabia were charged with different expectations, objectives and agendas. At the heart of these differences lies what I term as the sacralization of language phenomenon among the participants. This very phenomenon refers to the ways in which Arabic (including its practice) is construed by the participants as beneficial in this world and the Hereafter; as a linguistic vehicle for sustaining Islamic identity; and as a tool through which they show their true engagement with and commitment to Islam and Islamic life. I conclude the paper with a call for serious scholarly engagement with the sacralization of language phenomenon in the emerging scholarship of intra-Asian student mobility within the Asian region.

World Englishes and cross‐cultural advertising

AbstractGlobalization, along with emerging new media forms, is responsible for the spread of bilingualism and multilingualism in advertising. As English represents the common core of advertising, advertisers view it as the most suitable linguistic vehicle for the globalized world, mixing it with local language(s) in innovative and unique ways in their advertisements depending upon whether they originate from the Inner, Outer or Expanding Circles of English use. This introduction explores the multidimensional characteristics and dynamics of language mixing in advertisements in relation to the papers in this volume, ranging from the perspectives of structural to functional, monolingual to plurilingual, monocultural to cross‐cultural, and rational to emotional.

Epistemologias do “colonial” e da descolonização linguística: uma reflexão a partir de África

Um dos lugares mais efectivos de dominação colonial foi, no caso do colonialismo português, a língua portuguesa, através da qual o negro africano poderia ser considerado cidadão segundo um articulado legal (que se foi aperfeiçoando até chegar ao “Estatuto dos Indígenas Portugueses das Províncias da Guiné, Angola e Moçambique”, 1954). A língua portuguesa foi, assim, o único veículo linguístico de cidadania, sendo restrito o uso das línguas nativas – consideradas, de modo desprestigiante, dialectos – no domínio público formal e oficial, situação que se vem prolongando nas políticas linguísticas dos Estados pós-coloniais. Este texto propõe-se a reflectir sobre essa herança colonial, desvelando os meandros da epistemologia da descolonização assim como as condições do que conta como conhecimento sobre as relações de poder entre as línguas em presença em África (Europeias e nativas), em particular nos Cinco países africanos de língua oficial portuguesa.

OVER AGAIN: POTENTIAL NOVEL PERSPECTIVES FROM LEXICAL CONCEPTS & COGNITIVE MODELS THEORY

This article aims at analyzing the approaches by different authors to the English preposition over, showing their strengths and weaknesses. We then try to apply the theoretical constraints of Lexical concepts & Cognitive Models (hereafter: LCCM) to treat over from a novel perspective. Seth (2009) can describe the pragmatics of over in stances of use, but he fails to present the distinct senses of the word. Though Lakoff’s framework of Full-Specification could figure out the distinct senses of over, the vast proliferation of senses and a lack of methodological constraints make the approach inappropriate in certain cases. Other works by Kreitser (1997), Tyler & Evans (2003), Deane (2005) and Maria Brenda (2014) could, to certain extent, fill the gaps of Lakoff, but they have failed to address the issue of combining both the linguistic (parametric) and the non-linguistic (analogue) representations in analyzing the semantics of over. It is hypothetically proved that as a linguistic vehicle, the preposition over encodes 17 lexical concepts with unique semantic and formal selectional tendencies.

The Language of Moderate Salafism in Eastern Tatarstan

ABSTRACTAfter the fall of the Soviet Union, Russian became the main linguistic vehicle of Islam in Russia. Muslims who still speak in their native languages (such as Tatar, Chechen and Daghestani) now have to face and compete with the powerful growth of ‘Islamic Russian’, a new sociolect of the Russian language, which is characterized by the integration of Islamic terminology, either in loanwords or with Russian substitutes. This article argues that differences in ideology do not predetermine the choice of the linguistic vehicles: a group of Salafis in Tatarstan – so far ignored in scholarship but very active in publishing – employs the Tatar language for its moderate fundamentalist rhetoric to a native audience, and translates its texts into Russian only as a second step, to reach an audience beyond the republic of Tatarstan. While it is usually taken for granted that Salafi ideology comes with an international appeal, these Tatar Salafis’ adherence to the native tongue can be explained by the national movement of the late 1980s and early 1990s.

A case of the evil eye in Genesis 16:4-5: A social-scientific perspective

The nature and function of Evil Eye Belief and Practice (EEBP) in the world of the Old Testament has been understudied. The majority view has been that the belief was limited to the notion of largesse in this collection of literature. This article demonstrated that the idiom םינעב ללק in Genesis 16:4-5, routinely interpreted as a metaphor for scorn on the part of Hagar, could in fact be interpreted as a linguistic vehicle for the concept of the malevolent eye of Sarai. The author argued for an interpretation wherein Sarai, driven by envy, accused Hagar of casting the evil eye on her and used this alleged transgression as an excuse to abuse her slave. The evil eye in the Old Testament was not restricted to the idea of generosity, but was also closely associated with the concept of envy, as has been the case in the majority of ancient and modern cultures in which EEPB has featured. It further confirmed that the social function of the evil eye in the ancient world was not only constrained to the avoidance of envy-related violence but also served as an instrument of oppression in the hands of the rich and privileged. The key method utilised in this study was the social-scientific approach to the interpretation of biblical literature.

The Mofolo effect and the substance of Lesotho literature in English

This article interrogates a number of facets of Lesotho literature in English and Thomas Mofolo’s role in it. We are deliberately focusing on literature written in English and not in Sesotho, as the latter has been covered substantially by others (see Swanepoel; Ntuli and Swanepoel), and we find it necessary to stake claims from Lesotho on the English literary map of southern Africa. Historically, the emergence and evolution of literature in Lesotho has been closely linked to the evangelical mission of the church and the dominance of Sesotho as a sole linguistic vehicle for communication, catechistic instruction and creative imagination. This scenario has meant that, for years, literature written in the vernacular—Seso- tho—has tended to take pride of place at the expense of literary writing in English or in any other language. With time, however, translated works and original literature written in English have arisen and developed, though with almost imperceptible gradualism. This article sets out to describe, anatomise and judge (Hoffman 199) Lesotho literature in English since the days of Mofolo. The paper also attempts to define the identity of this literature.

The effects of absolute pitch ability and musical training on lexical tone perception

The relationship between processing of speech and music was explored here via the linguistic vehicle of lexical tone. People with amusia have been found to be impaired on linguistic tasks; we examined whether absolute pitch (AP) possessors have an advantage on linguistic tasks. Participants were 3 groups of monolingual Australian-English speakers: non-AP musicians (musically-trained individuals who did not possess AP), AP musicians (musically-trained individuals who were AP possessors), and non-musicians (no musical training). Perceptual discrimination was tested in an AX same–different task for lexical tones presented in three contexts: normal Thai speech, low-pass filtered speech tones, and violin, with processing level manipulated via variation of the interstimulus interval (ISI). Non-musicians showed attenuated pitch discrimination of tones in speech, suggesting speech specialisation. On the other hand, all musicians showed greater accuracy, faster reaction times and less variation in accuracy across stimulus types than non-musicians. Importantly, AP musicians showed greater accuracy than non-AP musicians in the speech context, implying a domain-general advantage due to AP. However, speech-violin accuracy correlations for AP musicians were almost zero at the longer ISI, suggesting less commonality of mechanisms during more extensive processing. Results are discussed in terms of the role of AP in tone language perception.

The expression of emotions by second language learners: Metaphor as a linguistic vehicle

This article explores the metaphors used by second language learners to express their emotions and emotional states. In a first experiment, two groups of French students wrote 300-word essays. The non-literal aspects of these texts and provide an account of the metaphors produced to vehicle emotions were studied. In a second experiment, French students with various proficiency levels in English picked and answered a series of questions about daily life in pairs, so as to recreate aspects of naturally-occurring conversations. The questions inquired about the emotions experienced by participants in previous, real situations, as well as their potential reactions and feelings in a set of hypo-thetical events. Some questions presented fictive scenarios (How would you feel if...) while others used images and videos designed to prompt different emotions (stress, happiness, tenderness, etc.). The learners' answers were analyzed using a similar method to MIPVU. Our analyses show that L2 learners resort to metaphors with an explanatory function exclusively when used to describe emotions; whereas they produced a wider range of metaphors (e.g. with ornamental or humorous functions) when dealing with other topics. The language of emotions and thus, the metaphors for emotions might be marked

Articulating “Responsibility” as a Prerequisite for the Arab Spring

In delineating the causes behind nonmilitant uprising and revolution in the Middle East, I propose that the import, the Arabization and Islamization of the term responsibility, as a key catalyst. Although the concept of responsibility is fundamental to the message of Islam, it is alluded to by an assortment of terms that seem to have fallen out of the day-to-day vernacular of Arab communities. The adoption of the term mas’uliyyah has served to express this fundamental concept. Furthermore, given its origin in post-Enlightenment Western political philosophy, the term provides a rare conceptual bridge between regions termed Western and Middle Eastern, in addition to being a linguistic vehicle capable of coarticulating modern Western and traditional Islamic thoughts. In this article, I trace the Arabization and Islamization of the term responsibility to nineteenth-century nahDah literature and its current establishment in different Islamic currents and schools. Moreover, I explain the utility of the term to express authentically Islamic vocabulary that has been forsaken in political terminology of the past two centuries.I propose that the presence of this now familiar term was instrumental in articulating the necessity of political change in a manner that resonated with millions of Arabs educated according to a modern Western model of education. Finally, I predict that the term responsibility will allow for a “new kinda fiqh” appropriate for an activated citizenry.

Articulating “Responsibility” as a Prerequisite for the Arab Spring

In delineating the causes behind nonmilitant uprising and revolution in the Middle East, I propose that the import, the Arabization and Islamization of the term responsibility, as a key catalyst. Although the concept of responsibility is fundamental to the message of Islam, it is alluded to by an assortment of terms that seem to have fallen out of the day-to-day vernacular of Arab communities. The adoption of the term mas’uliyyah has served to express this fundamental concept. Furthermore, given its origin in post-Enlightenment Western political philosophy, the term provides a rare conceptual bridge between regions termed Western and Middle Eastern, in addition to being a linguistic vehicle capable of coarticulating modern Western and traditional Islamic thoughts. In this article, I trace the Arabization and Islamization of the term responsibility to nineteenth-century nahDah literature and its current establishment in different Islamic currents and schools. Moreover, I explain the utility of the term to express authentically Islamic vocabulary that has been forsaken in political terminology of the past two centuries.I propose that the presence of this now familiar term was instrumental in articulating the necessity of political change in a manner that resonated with millions of Arabs educated according to a modern Western model of education. Finally, I predict that the term responsibility will allow for a “new kinda fiqh” appropriate for an activated citizenry.

A cessão do mosteiro de Armeses à condessa Dª Sancha Fernandes (1222). Intersecções escriturais no primeiro documento romance da Galiza

O Bullarium Ordinis Militiae de Alcantara (1759) e a Crónica de la Orden de Alcántara (1763) transmitiram-nos o texto de um documento (perdido) datado em 1222 pelo qual os mestres das ordens militares de Alcântara e Calatrava cediam o usufruto do mosteiro de Armeses (c. Maside, Ourense) à condessa Sancha Fernandes. A escritura apresenta, do ponto de vista idiomático, uma configuração compósita já que nela se amalgamam a expressão galego-portuguesa e a castelhana. O uso do romance como veículo linguístico desta carta constitui um fenómeno insólito nessa altura na Galiza e só pode ser entendido como resultado do acompanhamento fortuito das práticas scripto-linguísticas vigentes no território de Castela.

An analysis of refinement in an abortive paradigm

Abstract This paper presents a new strand of investigation which complements our previous investigation of refinement for specifications whose semantics is given by partial relations (using Z as a linguistic vehicle for this semantics). It revolves around extending our mathematical apparatus so as to continue our quest for examining mathematically the essence of the lifted-totalisation semantics (which underlies the de facto standard notion of refinement in Z) and the role of the semantic elements in model-theoretic refinement, but this time in the abortive paradigm . The analysis is given in two salient parts. In the first part, we consider the simpler framework of operation-refinement: we examine the ( de facto ) standard account of operation-refinement in this regime by introducing a simpler, normative theory which captures the notion of firing-conditions refinement directly in the language and in terms of the natural properties of preconditions and postconditions. In the second part, we generalise our analysis to a more intricate investigation of simulation-based data-refinement . The proof-theoretic approach we undertake in the formal analysis provides us with a mathematical apparatus which enables us to examine precisely the relationships amongst the various theories of refinement. This enables us to examine the general mathematical role that the values play in model-theoretic refinement in the abortive paradigm, as well as the significance of the unique interaction of these values with the notions of lifting (of data simulations) and lifted-totalisation (of operations) in this regime. Furthermore, we generalise this mathematical analysis to a more conceptual one which also involves extreme specifications .

An Analysis of Operation-Refinement in an Abortive Paradigm

This paper begins a new strand of investigation which complements our previous investigation of refinement for specifications whose semantics is given by partial relations (using Z as a linguistic vehicle for this semantics). It revolves around extending our mathematical apparatus so as to continue our quest for examining mathematically the essence of the lifted-totalisation semantics (which underlies the de facto standard notion of refinement in Z) and the role of the semantic elements ⊥ in model-theoretic refinement, but this time in the abortive paradigm. We conside the simpler framework of operation-refinement and, thus, (at least at this stage) abstract from the complications emerging when data simulations are involved: we examine the (de facto) standard account of operation-refinement in this regime by introducing a simpler, normative theory (SP-refinement) which captures the notion of firing conditions refinement directly in the language and in terms of the natural properties of preconditions and postconditions; we then summarise our observations and link them to the particular role each of the possible extreme specifications in Z plays in the abortive paradigm - this lays the foundations to a more intricate future investigation of data-refinement in this paradigm. We conclude by providing a detailed account of future work which generalises Miarka, Boiten and Derrick's work of combining the abortive and chaotic paradigms for refinement, in our mathematical framework of ZC and ZC⊥.

The Global Forces Affecting the Education Sector Today--The Universities in Europe as an Example

The author focuses on capital-led globalization and its accompanying ideology of economic liberalism and discusses its effects on European higher education. She focuses first on the well-known tendencies to operate higher education institutions like profit-making corporations and to turn academics into intellectual workers. Then she examines the linguistic vehicle for this kind of globalization, the increasing predominance of English to the detriment of the academic use of so-called small languages. English language-dominated economic globalization, the author feels, decreases the ability of higher education to further the aims of cultural enrichment and the advancement of knowledge.

Seeing through Listening Comprehension Exam Anxiety

* Several studies have been carried out in different contexts to show experimentally what language teachers know intuitively: that students in a foreign language classroom are often anxious and that this feeling inhibits their performance in the foreign language (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986; MacIntyre & Gardner, 1991a, 1991b; Phillips, 1992; Young, 1990, 1992, 1999). One of the conclusions of these studies is that anxiety among foreign language students is not just a case of general classroom anxiety being transferred to the foreign language but a distinct complex of things related to the foreign language classroom learning (Horwitz et al., 1986, p. 128). What makes language classes so special in this negative sense? Unlike classes in other subjects, foreign language classes that emphasize communicative skills require active participation and a high degree of risk taking and self-exposure. Adolescent or adult learners of a foreign language find themselves in the uncomfortable position of trying to express mature ideas in front of their peers in an obviously still immature linguistic vehicle. Their self-esteem is reduced in this process, and this onstruction of Ambiguous Sentenc s each item, the italicized part of the firs s ntence replaces the italicized part of the s cond timulus) sentenc . There we three Type 1, four Type 2, and thr e Type 3 ambiguous entences. (For a complete lis of sentences, see Harley, How d, & Hart, 1995.)

Medicine, Society and Faith in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds (review)

Reviews 109 An article on Pirandello's complex relationship with Germany by M . C. Mauceri (pp. 180-192), and a study in Italian on Italy's great contemporary dialect poet by Silvio Trambaiolo close the literary section of the volume. Trambaiolo writes on Zanzotto's dialect poems Mistierbi (1984) with the insight derived from seeing the punctuation and lexical variants in a manuscript version of 1979, which was shown to him by a w o m a n w h o had received a dedicated copy of these verses. Space does not here permit a detailed exposition of the three essays on language that close the volume. Antonia Rubino's article concerning three generations of Sicilian Australians living in contact in the immigrant situation, points out once again h o w language shift is rapid even within a household of nominal Italians. Months of tape recordings show that immigrant Sicilian speakers tend to defer to the subject matter choices of their children or parents, and hence to a preferred linguistic vehicle (pp. 209-237), which is always the language of the receiving country. P. Marmini and N. Zanardi close this volume in honour of a former head of Italian by illustrating just h o w far Second Language Acquisition research has progressed since the Italian language teaching, for example, of Professor Frederick May's generation (pp. 238-248). Nicoletta Zanardi, also of the Sydney department, explains h o w their locally produced Quintetto Italiano, using thematic passages from the Italian media, meets new classroom needs and responds to course assessment requests by the concerned client, the student learner, whether of non-Italian background or not. In sum, this volume is a sophisticated tribute to a Pirandellian scholar, a collector of Futurist whimsies (as shown by his 'Dialogic Hilarity and Body-Madness' at pp. 9-37) and the most challenging setter of undergraduate exam papers that can have been produced in our field. Bruce Merry University of Kuwait Amundsen, Darrel W., Medicine, Society and Faith in the Ancient and Medie Worlds, Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore and London, 1996; cloth; pp. xvi, 391; R.R.P. US$39.95. In Medicine, Society, and Faith in the Ancient and Medieval Worlds, Darre Amundsen draws together eleven essays, nine of them previously published from 1977 through to 1995, and a further two, 'Body, Soul, and Physician' and 'The Moral Stance of the Earliest Syphilographers, 1495-1505', written especially for this volume. In general terms, he investigates the history of medical ethics, focusing on the 'tensions and compatibilities' between medicine and religion. The introductory chapter, 'Body, Soul, and Physician', argues that religion and medicine share the goal of providing for man's (sic) well-being. The 110 Reviews relationship between the two may take four forms: medicine is subsumed under religion, for example, in medieval Europe; religion and medicine are partially separated, as in classical Greece; medicine and religion are completely separate, the current dominant legal position of the West; and religion is subsumed under medicine, an approach Amundsen suggests is rapidly gaining ground in the modern USA. The negotiation of these boundaries, and the associated issue of respect for human life, form the balance of the chapter. In an analysis which moves from the tenets of the church fathers to the form of the medieval 'death chamber', Amundsen outlines the difficulties of physicians obligated to do everything possible to cure a patient, and also inevitably present at death, however useless their presence. Chapters Two to Six focus on the classical and early Christian worlds. Readers familiar with the current popular discourse around the 'Hippocratic Oath' will be surprised to discover that some of its tenets are not typical either of the Hippocratic Corpus or of the realities of classical medical practice. In fact, ethics such as 'the duty to prolong' life probably originated in the later middle ages. Amundsen discusses the unlicensed nature of ancient medical practitioners and the lack of universal adherence to a specified code of ethics, and cautions that it is 'probably irresponsible' to speak of any universal ancient attitudes. For example, some authors, such as Plato and Aristotle, saw the case of defective newborn children in terms of the...

Editor's Note: The Evolution of Ebonics

at the Journal of Negro Education are especially pleased to present this issue, with its focus on educational issues related to the complex, rhythmic vernacular of English that has come to be associated with African American speech. Literally meaning sounds, according to the term's originator, psychologist Robert L. Williams (1975), Ebonics has been described in the sociolinguistic, historical, and cultural research as a blend of African, Native American, and nonstandard English language and communication patterns. The dialect evolved as a byproduct of the Middle Passage and the horrible experience of slavery, when Africans, forcibly removed from their homelands, were additionally forced to make some sense of the language of their captors. The enslaved Africans also had to develop, literally from scratch, a means of communicating with each other and with the Indians in whose villages they often sought refuge and solace. Thus came into being a distinctive, culturally based subsystem of speech and communication that has resonated throughout the history of this continent. From precoloniaT times to now, African American vernacular English, commonly known now as Ebonics, has emanated from the cotton fields of the South to the urban ghettos of the North to the suburban sprawls of the Midwest. It resounded among the angry Black voices raised in protest and defense during the bloody race riots of 1919, and was the linguistic vehicle of African Americans' strident calls for Freedom Now and Power in the 1960s and 1970s. Ebonics has been the language of the picket line and the sit-in as well as of hip-hop and the music video. Its presence and use have been part of African American discourse from the eras of abolition, Reconstruction, and the Niagara Movement to the ages of civil rights, Africentricity, and affirmative action. The form of English spoken by Black Americans was shaped and embellished by their encounters with other Americans and by the American educational as well as other systems. In turn, African Americans' language patterns have heavily influenced the English spoken by their White counterparts and others, such that Ebonics terms and phrases like whazzup (for What's happening?) and We be chillin' (for We're just relaxing) are today widely understood and utilized by young and old around the globe. Several of our faculty here at Howard University in the schools of Education and Communications as well as the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences worked hard to create this unique issue. Special thanks goes to guest editor Dr. Sharon-ann Gopaul-McNicol for all her efforts, and to Dr. Frederick D. Harper for his aid in conceptualizing this issue. Their contributions, and those of all the other scholars whose articles appear in this focus section, are sincerely appreciated.