Modes Of Language Use Research Articles

Register in Czech: Designing an MDA-based experimental study

There are no conventionalized ways to investigate the results of multidimensional analysis (MDA) from the perceptual perspective in an experimental setting. An MDA of the Czech corpus Koditex by Cvrček et al. (2020) established eight dimensions of variation based on 122 linguistic features. The first two dimensions, which explain the largest proportion of shared variance, are labeled as 1. dynamic (+)/static (-) and 2. spontaneous (+)/prepared (-). In our study, we investigated if some situational contexts of language use evoke stronger associations with the poles of the two dimensions than others. Furthermore, we aimed to explore the impact of the mode of language use and the properties of the interlocutor on the ratings.
 Czech native speakers (n=107) rated various situational contexts on 7-point Likert-like scales representing the MDA-based dimensions. The items were balanced in the formality of the interlocutor’s name (Mr. or Mrs. in connection to surname/first name), the interlocutor´s gender, and the mode of language use (spoken/written). The statistical analysis uncovered a significant effect of the formality of the interlocutor's name and the mode of language use on the ratings. Using first names and spoken mode resulted in ratings closer to the positive poles of the dimensions. The comparison of individual items showed that some situations, mainly those representing the negative poles of the dimensions, are rated more consistently than others. The results of our study offer insight into how native speakers evaluate situations of language use on the scales of preparedness, subjectivity, and interactivity.

The portrayal of the role and agency of students and higher education institutions in highly ranked business school discourses

PurposeThis study aims to investigate how highly ranked business schools portray ideal students in terms of their attributes and their agency. Understanding how these higher education institutions (HEIs) discursively construct their present and prospective students also shed light on the institutions’ self-representation, the portrayal of the student–institution relationship and eventually the discursive construction of higher education’s (HE) role.Design/methodology/approachTo understand this dynamic interrelationship, this study uses mixed methodological textual analysis first quantitatively identifying different modes of language use and then qualitatively analysing them.FindingsWith this approach, this study identified six language use groups. While the portrayal of the business schools and that of the students are always co-constructed, these groups differ in the extent of student and organisational agency displayed as well as the role and purpose of the institution. Business schools are always active agents in these discourses, but their roles and the students’ agency vary greatly across these six groups.Practical implicationsThese findings can help practitioners determine how students are currently portrayed in their organisational texts, how their peers and competitors talk and where they want to position themselves in relation to them.Originality/valuePrevious studies discussed the ideal HE students from the perspective of the students or their educators. Other analyses on HE discourse focused on HEIs’ discursive construction and social role This study, however, unveils how the highly ranked business schools in their external organisational communication discursively construct their ideals and expectations for both their students and the general public.

Bimodal multilingual education: recognizing the linguistic resources of a diverse deaf world

ABSTRACT Although research of bilingualism in a single aural–oral linguistic mode is common, this has yet to be extended to visual–gestural modes of language use. This is a significant research gap, as deaf people and signed languages are agentic forces that contribute to a diverse global linguistic and sociocultural landscape. In this article, we present a current deaf bilingualism case study in Uruguay to explore ways that education may move beyond a focus on bimodal bilingualism to acquisition of multiple signed languages alongside a spoken one: bimodal multilingualism. We contextualize the Uruguayan case within a broader history of bilingual education and introduce the possibility of an educational initiative in which bimodal multilingual educational opportunities are available through Uruguayan Sign Language (LSU), Spanish, and American Sign Language (ASL). We suggest five areas to attune to as bimodal multilingual educational initiatives are pursued, attending to language vitality and viability related to a number of speakers, intergenerational language transmission, attitudes toward languages, domains of language use, availability of quality language materials, and responses to media use. Finally, we conclude with a call to bilingual education scholars to include an emergent horizon of bimodal multilingual education marked by acquisition of multiple signed languages.

The non-predicative copula construction: A multiple-grammar perspective

The multiple-grammar model (Iwasaki 2015) was proposed based on the observation that the same speaker produces radically different forms of language in the spoken and written modes of language use. The model relies strongly on recent developments in usage-based grammars and cognitive linguistics, and considers speakers’ actual experience as the key to developing different grammatical systems in two distinct linguistic environments. It also acknowledges that a speaker may develop different systems (e.g. grammars) in different varieties, such as conversations and public speeches, within the same mode of language use. In order to understand how such grammatical varieties are structured, we focus in this paper on copula (desu) constructions in Japanese, which include a typical predicative copula construction (PCC), e.g. hon desu ‘(it) is a book,’ an unusual non-predicative copula construction (NPCC), e.g. soshite desu ne ‘then, you know,’ and the formulaic copula constructions (FCC), e.g. soo desu ne ‘that’s right.’ These constructions are distributed differently not only across speech activities, but also across individual speakers. This paper suggests that speakers’ differential experiences with the constructions used in different speech activities may be the cause of such variability.

Language as The Expression Representation of Thoughts

The focus of this research was ‘How is the form, content, and modes of language segment in the indicated media has many implicatures?’ The problem was studied by using a qualitative research design. The data were collected through observation, documentation, mingling, and focus group discussion. The data collected were analyzed by using the phenomenologist technique. The data fact “Everyone who commits obscene acts with other people of the same sex to person over 18 years old shall be convicted of the same criminal offenses if they use violence or threat of violence; violating public decency; publish; or contain pornographic elements”(note: the same sex, no violence or threat, no infringement,…., no pornography, is punished?) Language segment found in media was judged as (i) need to be reviewed, (ii) has pseudo certainty, (iii) open less satisfied opportunity, (iv) cause biased, and (v) lead injustice. Statements used in media that cause disgraceful behavior were not found. The modes of language use in media are intended to (i) give lessons, (ii) change behavior so that it does not violate the law, and (iii) fix reputation. Regarding the form, content, and mode formulated in media, it is suggested that statements must (i) be arranged in complete and flawless sentences, (ii) contain messages that cannot be refuted by anyone, and (iii) easily understood by anyone, not only law enforcers.

Grammaticalization and Bodily Action: Do They Go Together?

ABSTRACTThis response discusses how Keevallik’s suggestion that grammar is in some ways shaped by the tasks and constraints of (cooperative) bodily action relates to the established view of grammaticalization as an “invisible hand” process resulting from routinization of the motor actions of speech as well as general cognitive faculties. While grammaticalization processes have so far mainly been studied in data from connected (and world-representing) discourse, Keevallik addresses indexical modes of language use that are older and inextricably linked to bodily acts. However, to effectively further the understanding of the emergence of grammar, the tasks of embodied action to which it is presumed to respond should be described in less context-specific terms, and greater attention ought to be paid to the emergence of grammatical structures over time. Data are in American English.

The Uses of Poetry: Renewing an Educational Understanding of a Language Art

Drawing upon research undertaken for a project that explored the cultural value of poetry in lifelong learning, we argue for the renewal of a specifically educational understanding of poetry as a language art. In a context of increasingly instrumental approaches to the uses of poetry in educational settings, late twentieth-century discussions and perspectives on the relationship between poetry (as a distinct language art and distinctive mode of language use), experience and learning are examined in order to argue for the importance of poetry as poetry in education. Differences between poetry and other language arts such as literary prose and rhetoric are explored in an attempt to seek conceptual clarity about poetry as a mode of language use. The work of British educationist James Britton, in particular, is seen as important in this regard and his synthesis of intellectual resources from philosophy, psychology, and literary studies. We conclude by arguing that the distinctiveness of poetry and the essence of its utility in education arises from its self-conscious effort to draw attention to its symbolic nature and that poetry as poetry meets a deeply human need to symbolize.

K-pop Lyrics’ Language Hybridization: Use of English Varieties and Code-switching

This paper analyzed K-pop song texts in terms of language hybridization. The findings show that language hybridization proceeds in two ways: incorporating different varieties of English and code-switches between Korean and English. Different English varieties such as standard colloquial English, African American Vernacular English, and Koreanized English are used in K-pop song texts. Also, code-switches are the significant mode of language use in all the K-pop song texts analyzed for the research. K-pop lyrical texts maximize Korean and English bilingual resources to appeal not only to the local Korean audience but to the global fans. In the language hybridization processes, English varieties and Korean/English code-switches are utilized as effective resources in striking a balance between the locality and the globality of the K-pop songs. (Soongsil University)

Epistemological access through lecture materials in multiple modes and language varieties: the role of ideologies and multilingual literacy practices in student evaluations of such materials at a South African University

This paper seeks to address the ways in which ideology and literacy practices shape the responses of students to an ongoing initiative at the University of the Western Cape aimed at diversifying options for epistemological access, specifically the language varieties and the modes in which parts of the curriculum for a third year linguistics module are delivered. Students’ responses to the materials in English and in two varieties of Afrikaans and isiXhosa (as mediated in writing vs orally) are determined, and used as basis to problematize decisions on language variety and mode in language diversification initiatives in Higher Education in South Africa. The findings of the paper are juxtaposed against particular group interests in the educational use of a language as well as differences in the affordances and impact of different modes of language use. The paper suggests that beyond the euphoria of using languages other than English in South African Higher Education, several issues (such as entrenched language practices, beliefs and language management orientations) require attention if the goals of transformation in this sector are to be attained.

Incidental acquisition of receptive versus productive knowledge of adjective-noun order in the first exposure through input-based tasks: A case of Iranian young learners of English

Being a first exposure one, the current study aimed at answering Gullberg et al.’s (2010) call for studying the relationship between the earliest stages of acquisition in reception and production in order to elucidate how the two modes of language use may interact in the early stages of acquisition. As such, this study was an attempt to compare the effect of first exposure to L2 through input-based tasks on the receptive and productive acquisition of adjective-noun order. The participants of the study were 20 female Persian-speaking young EFL learners aging eight to ten with no prior experience of EFL learning and thus no knowledge of English. An input-based task, in the form of a listen-and-do task, was performed with plenty examples of adjective-noun order, then assessment tasks of comprehension and production of the target grammatical feature were administered to the participants. Unlike the fact that English and Persian employ different word orders for the target feature, L1 effect did not impede the subjects’ acquisition. The reason for this success can be traced back either to the age of participants and on the other hand to the way in which the input-based task facilitated the acquisition. Turning to the relationship between receptive and productive knowledge, results revealed that first exposure learners had a significantly better gain on production of this feature than its comprehension thus supporting more recent views concerning the possibility of the primacy of language production over language comprehension.

"Language, Discourse and Organizational Change in Japanese Contexts"

Japanese methods, such as TQM, TPS and lean, and Japanese organizational characteristics, such as loyalty to the company and long-term incentive systems, have received great attention from researchers who study organizational development and change. Some studies suggest that Japan's unique modes of communication can lead to effective and unique forms of organizational development and change. However, only a few studies examine the role of language and discourse in organizational development and change in Japanese organizations. The situation is similar in other non-English speaking countries. Most of the studies that draw on organizational discourse theory use cases of Western organizations in which English is used as the official language. This symposium is an attempt to break through such a situation. The main aim of this symposium is to bring a perspective on the diversity of language and various modes of language use in the studies of organizational discourse as well as organizational development and ...

Gêneros jornalísticos no ensino-aprendizagem da escrita: da entrevista ao perfil

This article aims at comparing topical organization in speaking and writing through a text production activity with journalism students, which involved both “interview” and “profile” genres. In this investigation, we will seek to describe and analyze some types of dialogism used by these students when shifting from one mode of language use to another. We will try to observe how these genres are used when converted into school genres and the implications of the combination of writing and orality in processes of writing development.Key words: interview, profile, genres.

Pour une sociophonétique des ethnolectes suisses-allemands

Over the last ten years or so, '(multi)ethnolects' – i.e. the language varieties of young immigrants – have attracted the attention of sociolinguists from several European countries. The most promising theoretical model (Auer 2003) distinguishes between primary, secondary and tertiary ethnolects, depending on whether the observed features appear in the speech of the immigrants themselves or if they are imitated by comedians and by youngsters without an immigrant background. The present contribution illustrates the dynamic nature of such 'ethnolectal' features in Swiss German in the light of Auer's model. Implications of our findings for a theory of sociophonetics are discussed, e.g. with regard to the sociolinguistic status of the involved variables (markers, indicators, stereotypes). Finally, it is pointed out that the realm of sociophonetic inquiry is shifting from the social characteristics of the language user towards different modes of language use.

Mobilizing the language of literature against violence: the Niger delta experience in Nigeria

Literature is a form of social reaction, where language serves as its medium. A writer maximizes the opportunities offered by the various modes of language use to effectively communicate his literary message. In this paper, we have appraised the language of the poems of Uche Peter Umez and Sophia Obi against the background of their reaction to Niger Delta experiences in Nigeria. The paper begins with a brief overview of the relationship between literature and society, dove-tails into text analysis and then draws conclusion. Key words: Literature, Language, violence, social reaction, Niger Delta Introduction

A public language: some sociological implications of a linguistic form

YN AN EARLIER PAPER an attempt was made to show a | relationship between two forms of linguistic expression and the way Xrelationships to objects were established.l It was argued that one form of language use, called a public language, facilitated thinking of a descriptive order and sensitivity to a particular form of social interaction. In the earlier paper a public language was discussed with reference to its use by the unskilled and semi-skilled strata, but approximations to a public language may well be spoken in such widely separated groups as criminal sub-cultures, rural groups, armed forces and adolescent groups in particular situations. Characteristics of a public language are: 2 I. Short, grammatically simple, often unfinished sentences, a poor syntactical construction with a verbal form stressing the active mood. 2. Simple and repetitive use of conjunctions (so, then, and, because). 3. Frequent use of short commands and questions. 4. Rigid and limited use of adjectives and adverbs. 5. Infrequent use of impersonal pronouns as subjects (one, it). 6. Statements formulated as implicit questions which set up a sympathetic circularity, e.g. 'Just fancy?', 'It's only natural, isn't it?' 'I wouldn't have believed it.' 7. A statement offact is often used as both a reason and a conclusion, or more accurately, the reason and conclusion are confounded to produce a categoric statement, e.g. 'Do as I tell you', 'Hold on tight', 'You're not going out', 'Lay of that'. 8. Individual selection from a group of idiomatic phrases will frequently be found. 9. Symbolism is of a low order of generality. IO. The individual qualification is implicit in the sentence structure, therefore it is a language of implicit meaning. It is believed that this fact determi-'es the form of the language.

The Korean conditional markers myen and tamyen: epistemicity vs. modes of language use

The Korean conditional markers myen and tamyen have been distinguished in terms of the speaker’s epistemic stance: while myen can be used with any speaker attitude, tamyen is only used with a hypothetical or irrealis attitude. However, tamyen-antecedents do not always express such an irrealis speaker attitude. This paper analyses the difference between myen and tamyen in terms of the modes of language use, i.e., descriptive and metarepresentational uses. It introduces the concept of interpretive use as defined and used in relevance theory and suggests that the ta in tamyen functions as an interpretive use marker. The presence of this interpretive use marker is responsible for the different felicities between myen- and tamyen-conditionals. Since a tamyen-antecedent is a metarepresentation of another representation, it is not used to describe a state of affairs in the content domain. This explains why deictic, generic, and temporal conditionals are more often used with myen, and given conditionals (i.e., conditionals whose antecedents are contextually given) with tamyen.

Learning an Additional Language Through Dialogic Inquiry

It has been increasingly recognised that classroom discourse plays an important social role as a semiotic mediator of knowledge construction with respect to curriculum content. The assumption is that through active verbal engagement with a topic of interest, students are enabled to master the modes of language use associated with schooling – the various genres and registers specific to the different school subjects. In this conceptual position paper, we examine how appropriate these assumptions are in the case of school-aged English as additional language (EAL) learners who are learning English as the language of instruction. In the first part, we will make the case for the importance of dialogue in learning, both first and second languages and the need for an inquiry orientation to the curriculum in order to promote dialogic interaction. In the second part, drawing on examples from our research, we will present three instantiations of dialogic inquiry involving EAL learners in elementary and intermediate grades and discuss issues concerning dialogic inquiry and second language learning.

The selective mode of language use and the quantized communicative field

Starting from the productivity of linguistic meaning, this paper focuses on information transfer in natural language in the most general manner. The author first introduces a ‘selective mode of language use’ (in addition to language's more commonly acknowledged representational mode), and then, as a pre-requisite, a (quantized) ‘communicative field’ for the selective mode to operate on. In their selective use, linguistic constructs serve not to encode, i.e., represent, an item close enough to some given pattern, but instead to select one among the viable options provided by the communicative field that is generated by the linguistic constructs. The notions of the selective mode of language use and the communicative field allow us to capture certain novel mechanisms of natural language communication, as well as to provide a common framework for a number of well-attested linguistic observations, very much like in physics, where one law accounts for a number of physical phenomena.

Wittgenstein's Legacy: Metagrammar, Meaning, and Ordinary Language

Wittgenstein’s Legacy: Metagrammar, Meaning, and Ordinary Language David Herman (bio) Review of: Walter Jost, Rhetorical Investigations: Studies in Ordinary Language Criticism Charlottesville: U of Virginia P, 2004. Ambitious in scope, richly integrative, and extensively researched, this study demonstrates its author’s familiarity with ideas from multiple fields of inquiry, including classical as well as modern rhetoric, critical theory, philosophy, and literary modernism. The chief aim of the book is to work toward integration and synthesis; drawing on theorists ranging from Martin Heidegger and Kenneth Burke to Ludwig Wittgenstein and Stanley Cavell, and using the poetry of Robert Frost to work through the author’s focal concerns, the book seeks to develop a framework for interpretation in which “grammar and rhetoric, philosophy and literature, reason and desire, reference and semiotics, truth and antifoundationalism” might be brought into closer dialogue with one another (1). More precisely, Jost characterizes literature and philosophy as the termini of his discussion, suggesting that rhetoric can be used to negotiate between these discourses (7). Hence, although the four chapters in Part II develop extended readings of Frost’s “The Death of the Hired Man,” “West-Running Brook,” “Snow,” and “Home Burial,” respectively, the present book is more about exemplifying a specific kind of critical inquiry, interpretation, argument, and community activity than it is about a particular poet, historical trajectory, literary period, or cultural moment. Frost’s poems present me with an occasion to rethink a nexus of questions about the everyday and the ordinary, language, experience, common sense, judgment, and exemplarity; to question assumptions about the grammatical and rhetorical possibilities of literary criticism; and to reexamine what I take to be underappreciated resources for criticism to be found in the traditions of rhetoric, hermeneutic phenomenology, pragmatism, and so-called ordinary language philosophy and criticism. (4) The introduction further specifies what the author means by the “ordinary language criticism” mentioned at the end of the passage just quoted and also in the book’s subtitle. Ordinary language criticism, in Jost’s account, takes inspiration from the ordinary language philosophy pioneered by Wittgenstein, refined by J.L. Austin, and recontextualized by Cavell (Claim, In Quest, Must; see also Baillie and Cohen). For theorists in this tradition, people learn (and later use) concepts thanks to their place within a larger form of life and the modes of language use associated with that form of life. Although abstract logical definitions play a role in specialized discourses (e.g., certain forms of philosophical analysis), in other discourse contexts boundaries between concepts are fixed by “situated criteria, the features and functions of things, the behaviors and actions of people in certain circumstances in which we operate with our words” (8). For example, when I hear someone say plank in a conversation I do not try to match that person’s usage against an abstract mental checklist of necessary and sufficient conditions for “plankness” in order to make sense of the term.1 Rather, I monitor whether the ongoing discourse is about the construction of ships, archaic practices of meting out justice at sea (as in walk the [gang]plank), or political campaigns, and I draw an inference, possibly incorrect, about which concept of “plank” is appropriate given the broader context in which the term plank is being used. “Plank” is irreducibly caught up in these contexts of usage; there is no single, decontextualized meaning of plank (cf. Herman 2002), but rather multiple, partly overlapping meanings, each determined by the use of the term in the situated, rule-governed modes of discourse production and interpretation that Wittgenstein called “language games” and Jean-François Lyotard “phrase regimens.” Further, these language games are not wholly autonomous practices but can impinge on one another, as when through a metaphorical extension plank migrates from the language game(s) of the shipwright to those of the politician and the pundit. The key insight here, though, is that plank does not denote “plank” prior to its being used in some language game or other, even if only the stripped-down “games” in which dictionary definitions or the rules of logic are used to map out semantic relationships among terms.2 But what would be the specific brief of...

On the Failure of Habermas's Hermeneutic Objectivism

In this article, the author first argues that Habermas's distinction between the two modes of language use that, he alleges, are central to the two starkly different modes of human cognitive activities, that is, analytical-empirical sciences and hermeneutics, is untenable and should be eventually abandoned. For, contrary to Habermas's argument, the analytical-empirical sciences, if they are to be properly understood, must also be conceptualized as involving the performative mode of language use that Habermas thinks is characteristic of hermeneutics only. Second, by using historical examples, the author proceeds to demonstrate why Habermas's hermeneutic objectivism that is based on the methodology of rational reconstruction is doomed to remain wedded to the epistemological foundationalism that he wants to displace by introducing his methodology of rational reconstruction.