Literal Meaning Research Articles

Explicit and implicit (im)politeness: A corpus-based study of the Chinese formulaic expression “Nikezhen+X”

This paper investigates the specific realization and recognition of explicit and implicit (im)politeness in interpersonal communication by drawing on a corpus-based data analysis of the metapragmatic expression “Nikezhen+X” commonly used for evaluations in Chinese. The results of the study reveal that this formulaic expression can be used for both explicit and implicit (im)politeness evaluations, which reside in the literal meaning (what is said) and the implicated meaning (what is implicated), respectively. From the addressee’s perspective, explicit (im)politeness is recognized based on the literal or conventional meaning accepted by default. Implicit (im)politeness, in contrast, is recognized on the basis of the implicated meaning intended by the speaker in the situational context. Recognition of (im)politeness depends on how the speaker uses the expression to represent his or her intention in relation to a set of politeness elements, namely, friendliness, attitudinal warmth, and respectfulness, which are highly valued according to the Chinese Politeness Principle. This empirical analysis of the realization and recognition of explicit and implicit (im)politeness sheds new light on the interaction of politeness and implicatures and to some extent poses a challenge to the general understanding of indirectness as politeness.

Türk Kültüründe ve Alevi-Bektaşi İnancında Kapı-Eşik Kavramı

Türk kültüründe mekânlara ve mekânların bazı bölümlerine zahirî ve batınî manalar verilmiştir. Alevi-Bektaşi inanç ve kültürüne baktığımızda kapı ve eşik kavramlarında bu durumla karşılaşılmaktadır. Bu makalede Türk kültürü ile Alevi-Bektaşi inancında yer alan kapı ve eşik kavramlarının anlamları, bu kavramların Türk mitolojisindeki yeri, İslam literatüründe nasıl ve ne şekilde yer aldığı, tarihî ve dinî kökenleri ile ibadetlerde uygulanış şekli üzerinde durulmuştur. Makalenin başında kapı ve eşik kavramlarının kelime ve kavram olarak ne tür manalar içerdiği hakkında bilgi verilmiştir. Ardından eski Türklerde “Kamlık (Şaman)” geleneğinde kapı ve eşik kavramı ele alınmıştır. Makalede Alevi-Bektaşi inanç ve kültüründeki kapı ve eşik kavramlarının İslami kökenlerine de değinilmiştir. Alevi-Bektaşi inanç ve kültüründe kapı ve eşik kavramı Hz. Peygamberin “Ben ilim şehriyim. Ali onun kapısıdır” hadisine dayanmaktadır. Alevilik-Bektaşilik inancında ibadetlerde ve uygulamalarda yer alan kapı ve eşik kavramlarının Türk mitolojisindeki olaylarda ve içeriklerde yer alış biçimleri izah edilmeye çalışılmıştır. Alevi-Bektaşi inanç ve kültüründe kapı, yolun başı ya da sonunda bulunan noktayı ve aşamalı olarak başka bir makama geçiş sürecini anlatan bir sembol olarak karşımıza çıkmaktadır. Makalede tüm bu konular ele alındıktan sonra son kısımda Alevilik- Bektaşilikte ayin-i cemde kapı ve eşik kavramlarının ne şekilde yer aldığı yazılı kaynaklar ve sözlü gelenek çerçevesinde incelenmeye çalışılmıştır. Anahtar Kelimeler: Türk Kültürü, Şamanizm, Alevilik-Bektaşilik, Kapı, Eşik.

RDVI: A Retrieval–Detection Framework for Verbal Irony Detection

Verbal irony is a common form of expression used in daily communication, where the intended meaning is often opposite to the literal meaning. Accurately recognizing verbal irony is essential for any NLP application for which the understanding of the true user intentions is key to performing the underlying tasks. While existing research has made progress in this area, verbal irony often involves connotative knowledge that cannot be directly inferred from the text or its context, which limits the detection model’s ability to recognize and comprehend verbal irony. To address this issue, we propose a Retrieval–Detection method for Verbal Irony (RDVI). This approach improves the detection model’s ability to recognize and comprehend verbal irony by retrieving the connotative knowledge from the open domain and incorporating it into the model using prompt learning. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed method outperforms state-of-the-art models.

S-KMN: Integrating semantic features learning and knowledge mapping network for automatic quiz question annotation

Quiz question annotation aims to assign the most relevant knowledge point to a question, which is a key technology to support intelligent education applications. However, the existing methods only extract the explicit semantic information that reveals the literal meaning of a question, and ignore the implicit knowledge information that highlights the knowledge intention. To this end, an innovative dual-channel model, the Semantic-Knowledge Mapping Network (S-KMN) is proposed to enrich the question representation from two perspectives, semantic and knowledge, simultaneously. It integrates semantic features learning and knowledge mapping network (KMN) to extract explicit semantic features and implicit knowledge features of questions,respectively. Designing KMN to extract implicit knowledge features is the focus of this study. First, the context-aware and sequence information of knowledge attribute words in the question text is integrated into the knowledge attribute graph to form the knowledge representation of each question. Second, learning a projection matrix, which maps the knowledge representation to the latent knowledge space based on the scene base vectors, and the weighted summations of these base vectors serve as knowledge features. To enrich the question representation, an attention mechanism is introduced to fuse explicit semantic features and implicit knowledge features, which realizes further cognitive processing on the basis of understanding semantics. The experimental results on 19,410 real-world physics quiz questions in 30 knowledge points demonstrate that the S-KMN outperforms the state-of-the-art text classification-based question annotation method. Comprehensive analysis and ablation studies validate the superiority of our model in selecting knowledge-specific features.

Analysis of Wawu Letters in Surah Al-Buruj: Nahwu Perspective

Understanding the Al-Qur’an requires mastery of Arabic grammar, especially nahwu science. One of the discussions in nahwu is Harf Wawu. This study aims to analyze the types and meanings of the Harf Wawu in Surah Al-Buruj of the Al-Qur’an. The author used primary sources and secondary sources to discuss research objects. The method used in data collection is distributing the bahsun maktabiyyun sheet, using observation method and reading books related to the discussion. Meanwhile, the method used in data analysis is Descriptive Nahwu and content analysis using tables. After researching Surah Al-Buruj, the authors conclude that the meaning of the harf wawu in Surah Al-Buruj: lil muthlaqil jam'i's, tartib and the meaning of ta'qib, the meaning of al bayan, the meaning of isti’nafiyah, and the meaning of ta'lil. As for the literal meaning of wawu found in Surah Al-Buruj: 1 lil muthlaqil jam'i, 1 wawu qasam, 1 wawu haal, 12 wawu athaf, 11 wawu jama'ah, and 1 wawu istinafiyyah. These findings show that the words in the Al-Qur’an are rich in meaning, so it becomes conclusive evidence that the Al-Quran has miracles in terms of language.

The Role of the Practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Fede­ration in the Development of Constitutionalism

The study conducted a systematic analysis of both the domestic doctrine and the practice of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation in the field of development of constitutionalism is carried out. The paper notes that for the constitutionalization of the national legal system, the rules identified by the body of constitutional control, which guide the legislator when adopting a law, become essential. The practice developed by the Constitutional Court contributes to the adoption of a constitutional and balanced decision when checking the compliance of the law with the constitutional provisions. The legal position contained in the decision of the Constitutional Court of the Russian Federation becomes the basis for future legal regulation. It is a guideline in the legislative process and in the activities of all public authorities and local self-government. The methodological basis of the research is the dialectical method of scientific knowledge, as well as logical, historical, systemic methods. Of particular importance were the methods of analysis and synthesis. We applied a functional method to study the main directions for ensuring a reasonable balance of private (individual) and public interests. The study revealed that the legal positions of the Constitutional Court are based on the analysis of universal provisions that characterize the basic constitutional values. The Constitutional Court carries out a broad interpretation of the norms being checked, explaining to the law enforcer that their content is not limited to the literal meaning. In the scientific literature, the potential of the body of constitutional control has been understood in terms of reforming legislation and adjusting law enforcement practice, as well as features of the implementation of functions to ensure the constitutionality of all acts and actions. At the same time, the boundaries of the implementation of constitutional control practice do not allow going beyond the framework of legal protection and protection of the constitution, since in this activity the body of constitutional control is guided only by constitutional norms and determines the constitutionally permissible boundaries for the application of the verified normative legal acts.

Dernières nouvelles

Abstract This article shows the relevance of “engaged” or “committed” literature for “post-colonial” African writers in the two collections of short stories called Dernières nouvelles. Through the analysis of narrative utterance, we argue that their position reflects the African fight against colonialism and neo-colonialism. The writers execute a kind of continuum by claiming a literary tradition inherited from the founders of the Negritude movement. However, inspired by the modern context, the writers distance themselves from the radical and racial engagement of their predecessors. This difference can be observed in the use of various literary means, such as on the pretext, “silent cry” and the oxymoron. The article finally argues that there is a contradiction between the criticism of neo-colonial practices and the writers’ collaboration with French publishing houses and different cultural associations.

A Comparative Study of the Literal and Symbolic Meaning of the Numbers in Qur’anic Verses about Creation

A Comparative Study of the Literal and Symbolic Meaning of the Numbers in Qur’anic Verses about Creation

The Mishnah's Reader: Reconsidering Literary Meaning

Abstract: The Mishnah is both the best-organized work of rabbinic literature and not entirely consistent in its organization. These aspects led to robust scholarly debates about the Mishnah as a work of literature. Recent overview scholarship has highlighted the inconsistency and refused to attempt to define the Mishnah's literary genre. This essay draws on three common mishnaic phenomena to highlight the ways the Mishnah asks to be read. It argues that the Mishnah employs legal couplets (paired statutory case presentations) to communicate the presence of underlying conceptual meaning and to train the reader to mine the text for such meaning. It shows that the Mishnah stacks couplets like building blocks to produce ever-richer conceptual understandings of mishnaic information. Finally, it highlights and embraces the role that readers must play in producing the Mishnah's fullest meaning.

NATIONAL ANTHEM SINGING AT INTERNATIONAL SPORT COMPETITIONS: DOES THE DISCOURSE AGAINST KIMI GA YO AFFECT THE JAPANESE YOUTHS?

This paper aims to discuss the view of Japanese youths on the discourse against Kimi ga Yo, especially in the setting of international sport competitions. It is a qualitative-research that uses the open model survey technique to obtain the primary data from the Japanese youths aged 20 to 22. The result of this paper shows that the discourse against Kimi ga Yo does not implicate towards the youths’ view in the present days of Japan. It also highlights the youths’ ignorance on the literal meaning of the lyrics and their emphasis on the function of Kimi ga Yo as a national anthem.
 Keywords: Kimi ga Yo, critical discourse analysis, Japanese youths

Representasi Nasionalisme dan Patriotisme Dalam Film Perburuan: Analisis Semiotika

Film Perburuan is a film adapted from the novel by Pramoedya Ananta Toer titled Perburuan. The film portrays the background and conditions of Indonesia during the struggle for independence, depicting the PETA (Defenders of the Homeland) forces when they were cornered while facing the Japanese army. Richard, the screenplay writer, added a story element to the film by providing a depiction of events six months prior to the original story, focusing on the character of Hardo. Research results show that Film Perburuan, in various ways understood by researchers using the construction theory and semiotic analysis approach of Roland Barthes, has six scenes that demonstrate the function of actors, with 20 functions depicting the meaning of struggle out of 31 functions of actors. There are eight opposing characters that represent the characters of goodness and evil based on the characters in the film, and within the seven character functions, there are only six characters in Film Perburuan. In Film Perburuan, this is achieved by using the stages of denotation and connotation. The denotation stage represents the literal meaning or what happens in the scene, while the connotation stage represents the meaning used to interpret the hidden meanings present in each scene.

Color and Number Symbolism in the Novel “Paradise” by Abdulrazzak Gurnah

This article addresses the use of colors and numbers in fictional literature, namely Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise, to express ideas beyond their literal meanings. Some authors may even employ colors to express a mood or underline critical themes in their works; for example, pastel colors may suggest dreaminess, while deeper tones may denote mystery or dread. The practice of giving particular numbers or numbers patterns value and meaning is known as number symbolism. This custom has been practiced throughout history in various nations and traditions and is frequently applied in spiritual, religious, or mystical situations. The symbols for the numbers three, seven, twelve, forty, and hundreds are well-known. Each of them alludes to diverse cultural perspectives that vary. The novel Paradise by Abdulrazak Gurnah might serve as an illustration of how colors and numbers can be used to convey ideas to readers about the importance of both colors and symbols in global culture. White, black, green, and red are frequently used color combinations in Paradise and are associated with colonialism, passion, desire, and nature. Numbers three, seven and twelve examine memory, religion, and personal identity questions. Colors and numbers are two parallel motifs frequently appearing in literature, yet Abdulrazak Gurnah's Paradise shows how important colors are relative to numbers. Additionally, in fictional literature, colors and numerals serve as indicators of cultural elements.

Semiotic: Analysis of Verbal and Nonverbal Signs of Canggu Weekly Advertisement

An advertisement is a form of communication used to persuade an audience (viewers, readers, or listeners) to take some action concerning the product, the ideas, or the service. This study focuses on a single advertisement; The Canggu weekly advertisement Strongly conveys promotion Using verbal and nonverbal signs. The study Determined to find out the verbal and nonverbal signs in used in the advertisement and their meaning. The study uses a qualitative descriptive method and two theories in analysing the data. The first was the theory of Semiotic by Saussure (1893), and the theory of meaning by Barthes (1977). The findings show that the signs in this advertisement typically have a literal or denotative meaning in explaining the product. The same thing in the nonverbal signs the dominant meaning used was denotative meaning. It is because the literal meaning is making the reader easier to catch the message delivered by a print advertisement or an online advertisement.

Structural Studies of Robert Stanton in The Folklore of Luwu (Worongporong dan Pariama)

This study aims to describe the intrinsic elements in the folklore of Luwu Worongporong and Pariama using the study of Robert Stanton's structural theory. The data generated is descriptive data that is written in the form of words, expressions, and sentences. There are two sources of data used, namely primary and secondary data. The data collection technique used is reading and note-taking technique. The results of this study describe the themes in the folklore of Worongporong and Pariama which are divided into major and minor themes. There are facts of the story which are divided into three parts, namely plot, character and setting, as well as literary means that describe the point of view and style of language.

Poligami dalam Pandangan Hukum Islam (Kritik terhadap Larangan Poligami dalam UU Turki)

Polygamy has become one of the most interesting issues in Turkey by establishing legislation in force in the Muslim country regarding threats and punishment for polygamy perpetrators, because fundamentally Islamic law has never stipulated the prohibition of polygamy. Only a few contemporary Muslim thinkers, through ijtihadi interpretations, forbid polygamy today. Referring to the literal meaning of the Koran, every Muslim man can marry up to four women, on condition that they act fairly. In the legislation of the Turkish State, polygamy is a practice that is considered to violate the laws in force in that country, Turkey believes that the negative effects are very large for families and hurt women a lot. So that in this case Turkey prohibits polygamy for its people and will provide criminal sanctions for anyone who violates these rules.

The Chinese-English Translation of Four-character Pattern from the Perspective of Functional Equivalence Theory

The four-character pattern is a unique form of Chinese language, whose definition is a word or phrase consisting of four syllables, including four-syllable simple words, compound words, idioms, fixed phrases and free phrases. These words are usually concise, expressive and rich in variations. However, there are no such corresponding expressions in English, which causes a great obstacle to the Chinese-English translation. In translation activities, the translation of idioms is often considered significant, which symbolizes the transmission and expression of culture. However, the four-character patterns in Chinese are simple in form, consisting of only four characters, but they have rich cultural connotations. Because of their complex and diverse structures and hidden meanings, English translations of these are often prone to cause problems such as unclear expressions, missing semantics, and loss of meaning. It is difficult to make simple word-for-word translations based on their literal meanings. Also, the common direct translations have long failed to meet the needs of English translations of idioms, which has become a major problem in translation activities.

Heavenly Recommendations about Moderation towards Humanity: Imām Al-Awzā’ī as a Model

The severe crises of the Middle East have undoubtedly spawned an environment of deep-seated resentment, in which extremists’ views have flourished. Terrorist groups such as al-Qaeda and ISIS have portrayed themselves as the saviours of the Islamic Umma (nation) and the guardians of Islam. They have taken advantage of Muslim grievances as a vehicle to justify a call for violence. Moreover, they have exploited the religion through selective reading and interpretation of sacred texts, relying on the power of the literal meaning that conceals many interpretations and objectives. Their textual approach that relies on a strict adherence to the scriptures neglects Fiqh Ma’ālāt al-Af’āl (the results of actions), Fiqh al-Muwāzanāt (jurisprudence of balances), Fiqh al-Awlawīyāt (jurisprudence of priorities), and Maqasid al-Sharī’ah (higher objectives of Islamic law). Moreover, they have rejected Islamic laws and regulations regarding al-Jihād, al-Amān (safe-conduct), promoting righteousness and purging evil, rebellion against Muslim rulers, and the sanctity of human life (Al-Hmoud, 2013; Al-Ḥmad, 2022).

Whither nursing philosophy: Past, present and future.

A version of this paper was given as the Inaugural Steven Edwards Memorial Lecture at the 25th conference of the International Philosophy of Nursing Society 16th August 2022. Using the literary meaning of 'whither', that is 'to what place', this paper will explore the role of philosophy in nursing, past, present, and future. The paper will begin with some thoughts on the history of nursing philosophy, its development as a subject and the scholarly activities that have led to where it sits today. The establishment of the journal Nursing Philosophy, the Annual Nursing Philosophy Conference, the International Philosophy of Nursing Society (IPONS) and their influence on nursing both in the academy and in practice will be discussed. The concept of nursing philosophy as a discipline will be considered, and how this fits with nursing theory, and nursing knowledge. Philosophical questions central to understanding contemporary nursing in a globalised world will be explored and the use of analytical philosophy and philosophical method in addressing such questions. The paper will conclude by looking to the future; what the role of philosophy might be in shaping nursing as a discipline and in the preparation of future practitioners.

What would one do if they were the black sheep?

The purpose of this paper is to present how Romanian learners of English process a specific idiom related to color. In order to do this, I carried out an experiment with three groups of students from the school where I teach English as a foreign language. The experiment was just a small fraction of several others which as a whole made my Ph.D. Thesis. My research thesis is concerned with how non-native speakers of English process idioms related to weather, anger, and color. To understand their way of processing figurative language I carried out several experiments for each set of idioms. Each experiment consisted of two distinct parts: during the first part I gave my students the idioms in a context-free version and asked them to offer translations, whereas, during the second part, I gave them the same idioms but in a contextualized instance. I assumed that some of my students would be influenced by their linguistic background, their knowledge of English, and their mother tongue – Romanian. Many of my assumptions proved to be right. However, there were instances when students were able to provide proper translations of some idioms even from the context-free encounter of them. For others, contexts proved valuable instances of vocabulary that actually helped them grasp the figurative meaning. The choice of this specific idiom – black sheep – was taken bearing in mind the existence of a similar idiom in Romanian – oaia neagra. Both in Romanian and English this expression is mainly used with its figurative meaning despite the fact that the literal meaning makes sense as well.

An Idiom Reading Comprehension Model Based on Multi-Granularity Reasoning and Paraphrase Expansion

Idioms are a unique class of words in the Chinese language that can be challenging for Chinese machine reading comprehension due to their formal simplicity and the potential mismatch between their literal and figurative meanings. To address this issue, this paper adopted the “2 + 2” structure as the representation model for idiom structure feature extraction. According to the linguistic theory of idioms, to enhance the model’s learning ability for idiom semantics, we propose a two-stage semantic expansion method that leverages semantic knowledge during the pre-training stage and extracts idiom interpretation information during the fine-tuning stage to improve the model’s understanding of idioms. Moreover, with the consideration of the inferential interaction between global and local information during context fusion, which is neglected by all current works, we propose a method that utilizes a multi-headed attention mechanism to fully extract global and local information by selecting three attention patterns in the fine-tuning stage. This enables the fusion of semantic information extracted by the model at different granularities, leading to improved accuracy. The experimental results demonstrated that our proposed BERT-IDM model outperformed the baseline BERT model by achieving a 4.1% accuracy improvement.