Personal Pronouns Research Articles

More personal, but not better: The personalization effect in learning neutral and aversive health information

AbstractBackgroundAccording to the personalization effect in multimedia learning, the use of personal and possessive pronouns in instructional materials (e.g., ‘you’ and ‘your’) is beneficial. However, current research suggests that the personalization effect is inverted for emotionally aversive content (e.g., illnesses).ObjectiveThis study investigates whether a beneficial personalization effect can be observed for emotionally neutral health‐related content whereas the effect may be reversed for emotionally aversive health‐related content.MethodsIn this study, 139 university students learned both emotionally aversive learning content on type 1 diabetes (within‐factor) that was presented in either personalized or non‐personalized language (between‐factor). The presentation order of the content (neutral first vs. aversive first) was controlled (between‐factor), resulting in a 2 × 2 × 2 mixed design. The dependent variables measured include learning outcomes (regarding retention and transfer), state anxiety, extraneous cognitive load, motivation and learning time.Results and ConclusionsIn the transfer test, learners generally performed better when learning with non‐personalized instructional materials than with personalized instructional materials, regardless of whether the content was emotionally neutral or aversive. The results raise questions regarding the robustness of the personalization effect and the underlying mechanisms of the inverted personalization effect. An alternative explanation to be investigated is whether the direct reference to a disease that the participants do not have (here: ‘your type 1 diabetes’) leads to schema interference, which could be responsible for poorer learning performance—even if the learning content about the disease can be considered emotionally neutral.

Taboo in Balinese Language Spoken in Nusa Penida Based on Tri Hita Karana Concept

AbstractThis study aimed at identifying taboo words of Balinese language spoken in Nusa Penida based on the concept of Tri Hita Karana. Descriptive qualitative was used as the research design of this study. There were three of local people in Nusa Penida recruited as the research informants by using purposive sampling technique. The data were collected by conducting interview and taking-note. The instruments were interview guide and note or check-list. The obtained data were analyzed by using qualitative data analysis method consisting of data reduction, data display, and conclusion drawing. The finding showed that there were 60 taboo words of Balinese language spoken by the local people in Nusa Penida Island. It was found that there were eight forms of taboo words spoken by local people in Nusa Penida Island, such as; metaphor, metonymy, and euphemism, abusive, cursing, obscenities, blasphemies, swearing, and expletive. It also discovered that there were 16 categories of references used, such as; parents name, animal name, God name, name of people who have died, name of relatives, mentioning genitals, sexual activity, specific jobs, bodily function, wisdom of ruler, illness, nature, name of spirits, personal pronoun, specific activity.

VOCABULARY OF THE LEXICAL MINIMUM WHEN LEARNING UKRAINIAN AS A FOREIGN LANGUAGE (LEVEL A1) (A review of the textbook by Ksenia Borodin and Oksana Turkevych “1000 and 1 Words. Lexical minimum in Ukrainian (A1)” – Slavic Language Education 3 (LANGUAGE-LAB), 2023. – 58 p.)

The review characterizes the first edition of the lexical minimum for Ukrainian as a foreign language at the A1 level in accordance with the “Standardized Requirements: Levels of Proficiency in Ukrainian as a Foreign Language A1-C2” (Kyiv, 2020). The structure, grammatical description, and examples of the use of language units contained in the textbook are analyzed. The author explains the criteria used to form the content of the A1 lexical minimum. The lexical material is organized and described with grammatical comments on the alternation of vowels or consonants, the formation of plural forms from other bases, the use of dative and accusative forms of personal pronouns, personal or imperative verb forms, etc. The authors also see this as an element of self-testing for knowledge of the relevant word forms, as well as in the case of forming a context for each vocabulary unit, which demonstrates to users – both students and teachers and scholars in the field of linguistics – the practical application of the lexical minimum. Also noteworthy are the didactic tips on how to work with this educational material (translation tasks, making word cards by topic group, creating tests to check the acquired knowledge at A1 level, etc.) The textbook is an extremely important and relevant work that has been prepared in accordance with modern requirements, didactic achievements and scientific research in the study and teaching of Ukrainian as a foreign language. Undoubtedly, this work will help beginner students, teachers, and all those interested in mastering the Ukrainian language to develop the lexical skills necessary for the realization of communicative activities as soon as possible and in a structured way. Key words: Ukrainian as a foreign language, lexical minimum, beginner level A1, Standardized requirements for levels of proficiency in Ukrainian as a foreign language.

“We are 9 degrees and sunny”: the use of personal pronouns with weather predicates

AbstractThis squib discusses a construction heard during weather reports on CBC Radio One in Manitoba whereby personal pronouns appear as the subjects of weather predicates. We show that the use of we/you in statements like we are minus 15 degrees and Brandon, you are sunny is unlike other non-prototypical uses for personal pronouns that have been noted in the literature and argue they index place rather than person. We note that the deictic coordinates of the utterance that are spelled out by these pronouns are necessary for a felicitous interpretation of weather statements, even though they are typically implicit. This implicit deixis, in turn, sheds light on a long-standing claim that weather-it, in contrast to a true expletive, is ‘quasi-argumental’ (Chomsky 1981). That is, we suggest that the deictic coordinates of an utterance are ‘quasi-arguments’.

Writer and participant visibility in quantitative and qualitative research: a corpus-assisted study of human agent verbs in health science publications

Abstract Quantitative and qualitative research writing is thought to differ in a number of ways, which include the visibility given to the human agents involved, that is, writers and participants in the study. However, most studies have so far centred on writer visibility alone, which has been measured principally through personal pronoun use. This paper approaches the issue of writer and participant visibility in one area of research where both quantitative and qualitative methods are frequent, namely health sciences. A new methodology is applied, based on the presence of verbs that imply a human agent and thus potentially offer an opportunity for writer or participant visibility. Two corpora are built to represent quantitative and qualitative research writing in health sciences, and quantitative data are obtained. Exploration of the most frequent human-agent verbs, their active uses and their subjects shows that both quantitative and qualitative researchers in health science maintain low writer visibility, but that both writers and participants are more visible in the case of studies using qualitative methodology. These findings are discussed in the light of the bibliography, and pointers are provided for future research. The contribution of the present paper to corpus-assisted research on academic writing is highlighted. Finally, some applications for teaching scientific writing at graduate level are proposed.

Gender Patterns in Indonesian: A Corpus Study of Personal Pronoun References “Ia” and “Dia”

Indonesian is a language that does not have a grammatical gender feature, and this absence extends to the third-person singular pronouns. In English and many European languages, there are distinct second-person for addressing genders: male and female. The grammatical structure of Indonesian remains unchanged despite temporal shifts and the absence of gender-specific distinctions. The official Indonesian dictionary (Kamus Besar Bahasa Indonesia or KBBI) does not designate ia and dia with explicit gender distinctions, such as masculine and feminine. This research aims to discuss the masculine and feminine contextual patterns of the pronouns ia and dia within the Indonesian Corpus (Korpus Bahasa Indonesia or KOIN). The study used a dataset comprising 121.098 tokens selected from literature, national, and social categories. Identifying gender patterns in using the second-person pronouns gets the research focus on the data of 19.697 concordances of the word ia and 10.031 concordances of dia. The findings indicate that dia has a reasonably equal association with both genders, but the word ia prefers feminine references more. It clarifies the nuances of gender expression in Indonesian and explains how linguistic decisions communicate gender information.

German demonstrative pronouns differ in their sensitivity to discourse and sentence topics

German has two demonstrative pronoun series: the short form der, die, das, and the long form dieser, diese, dieses. Both forms can be used anaphorically, and they contrast with the personal pronouns er, sie, es in that they refer to an antecedent that is less prominent at that point in the discourse when the discourse provides different potential antecedents. Demonstrative pronouns are typically used in the preverbal position in a German sentence, i.e., the topic position. Thus, they are assumed to be topic shifters (from a non-topical antecedent to the topical argument in the current sentence). However, der can be repeated, yielding topic chains, thus referring back to a topical antecedent, while this is not the case for dieser. In this article, we argue that der and dieser both contribute to topic management, but they do this in different ways: der is a marker of a sentence topic, while dieser is a marker of discourse topic shift. We present the results of two experiments that compare the use of personal pronouns with either demonstrative pronoun manipulating sentence topic or discourse topic. First, both experiments show that the personal pronoun is not sensitive to either type of topichood of its antecedent. Second, Experiment 1 shows that both demonstrative pronouns prefer a context where discourse topic and sentence topic are shifted. Third, Experiment 2 shows that only dieser prefers a context with a shifted discourse topic, but der is not sensitive to discourse topichood alone. We take the results as supporting our claim that the two demonstratives have different discourse functions: der marks a sentence topic, while dieser is a shifter (and marker) of the discourse topic.

The Power of Small Talk Discourse as Mitigating Conflict in Different Religious Communities in Ntaram

Objective: This research analyzes explicitly the tiny talk (fatik) discourse used by the Ntaram (Manggarai) Flores community as a verbal force to mitigate conflict in plural communities (different religions) in Ntaram, Manggarai-Flores. Method: This research chooses qualitative (interpretive) because the data collected and analyzed is in words, phrases, clauses, or sentences. Data was collected through in-depth interviews with informants, which were determined purposively. In addition, the observation method is used to observe the daily communication of the plural community in Ntaram. Data were validated through (1) data source triangulation and method triangulation. (2) Checking validity through Focus Group Discussions involving key sources. Results and Discussion: Small talk (fatik) in communicating between people of different religions in Ntaram: (1) Small talk in the form of greetings. Ntaram people call "ite" which means we (first person plural personal pronoun). The word addresses the speech partner (second person personal pronoun). (2) Small talk in the context of greetings, such as nia ngaok, which means "noisy." These pleasantries explain sociologically that the social behavior of the Ntaram people is cheerful and happy to accept anyone. (3) Typical terms of respect related to religion are ata sili mai wae and ata le mai tana golo. Ata silimai wae means people who come from the coast or riverbanks. (4) Ethics of Interrupting Conversations. Ntaram people have small talk about interrupting conversations ethically through small talk such as eta ulu keta ite and no ramping dite. Eta ulu keta means that I uphold your opinion above my head. These four types of pleasantries are most productively used in the context of building brotherhood amidst religious and ethnic differences in Ntaram. Recommendations: The research findings recommend that (1) it is necessary to revitalize the small talk discourse in Ntaram in the form of content taught in schools. Thus, endemic inheritance is carried out well. (2) further research is needed regarding the antecedent factors that influence the harmony of multiethnic society in Ntaram. (3) Research in other areas must reveal how multicultural societies mitigate social conflict through small talk.

Избыточность лично-возвратного местоимения себя: к вопросу о небанальном грамматическом плеоназме

The article deals with the case of grammatical pleonasm, which involves the verbalization of the verbal position of the actant or localizer by the case forms of the personal reflexive pronoun self, which have a spatial or subject-object meaning. This phenomenon is widespread in modern usage (at least 50 verbs participate in it), in different types of discourse (journalistic, political, advertising, colloquial, literary, educational and scientific), in oral and written speech, but it is not comprehended in terms of “language norm” or “speech error”, although the data of explanatory dictionaries impose a ban on the duplicate use of the pronoun self with some verbs. The article proves the deficiency of such combinations based on the semantic analysis of verbs, as well as by means of grammatical transformation – changing the part of speech or word order, which serve as additional methods of error verification. Based on the analysis of semantics, the list of verbs (50 units) that form pleonastic collocations (55 units) with all members of the case paradigm (Genitive, Accusative, Dative, Ablative and Locative with or without a preposition) of the personal reflexive pronoun self was revealed. Pleonastic control is provoked mainly by transitive verbs with the meaning of “location” and “placement / movement of an object” (integrating it into something, or excluding it, joining it with something, collecting or eliminating), as well as the meaning of “possessing” or “obtaining”. In metaphorical contexts with these verbs, the pronoun self is also redundant. From the point of view of linguistic logic, semantics and existing dictionary stipulations, this phenomenon should be codified as a grammatical pleonasm.

Authoritative and epistemic stance in the construction of conspiracy theories: A case study

What is central to conspiracy theories is the revelation of a hidden or manipulated truth. In addition, the speaker/writer who believes in a conspiracy theory and shares their views on it also seeks the listener’s/reader’s adhesion to the theory. As a result, the speaker/writer must solve two problems: first, the version in which they believe has to be perceived as plausible by the audience and, second, the speaker/writer must have, or gain, credit in order to appear credible. These two aspects are somewhat subsumed under what Biber and Hyland, among others, refer to as stance and stance-taking, which correspond to the positioning of a locutor towards viewpoints and interlocutors. In order to analyze these aspects and the relations between the linguistic markers and the discursive strategies (pragmatic, argumentative, or rhetoric), this study is based on a corpus analysis of online articles written by Jon Rappoport, an unequivocal conspiracy theorist. I only focus on plausibility hedges and certainty boosters so as to study the marking of authoritative and epistemic stance in his discourses and the function(s) they perform. The results show that both plausibility hedges and certainty are used to legitimize Rappoport’s theories and strengthen his authority in various ways, depending on the devices used. Plausibility hedges are mainly used to voice a dissenting interpretation of reality, presented as a possibility that cannot be ruled out, and downplay the elite’s viewpoints. Certainty boosters are used to express the author’s confidence and commitment towards his theories, by presenting his interpretation of reality as unquestionable, self-evident or consensual. Finally, the use of first-person pronouns and booster or hedge verbs are also used to strengthen the legitimacy of the theories and the authority of the author by explicitly indicating his contribution to the construction of conspiracy theories or to introduce and support a dissident viewpoint.

Gender, number and person: a three-way interaction

Abstract According to the principle of informativity, more useful information is more likely to be coded than less useful information. This principle underlies Greenberg’s Universals 37 and 45, which state that a larger number of (sex-based) gender contrasts are on average found in singular than in non-singular forms. As an increase in group size lowers the probability of same sex groups, gender-specific personal pronouns are less useful in the non-singular than in the singular. Curiously enough, the principle of informativity also makes the opposite prediction: in the first person, non-singular forms are predicted to show a gender contrast more frequently than singular forms do. Moreover, exclusive forms are predicted to develop gender distinctions more often than inclusive forms. In this paper, these predictions are put to a typological test. A total of 51 languages from 17 different families and 24 different genera has been found in which the first person singular personal pronoun is gender-neutral while one or more of its non-singular counterparts inflect for gender. It is argued that Universals 37 and 45, as well as their counterclaim, are empirically adequate. This apparent paradox dissolves in a three-way interaction of gender, number and person in pronominal paradigms. In keeping with the principle of informativity, there is a bias in favour of gender marking in the third person singular but also a bias in favour of gender marking in the first person non-singular.

Comparing reflexive and personal pronouns in Chinese locative prepositional phrases

In many languages, both reflexive and personal pronouns within locative prepositional phrases (LPPs) can be co-construed with a local subject, making LPPs an ideal testing ground for non-syntactic factors influencing pronoun use. Focusing on Chinese, we experimentally tested the extent to which acceptability of reflexives ziji and ta-ziji and personal pronoun ta depends on event type (motion/perception) and relation type (contact/non-contact). We find that effects follow the trend previously reported for English but affect different forms to different degrees. Along with advancing understanding of binding in LPPs, this work contributes to comparisons between ziji and ta-ziji and the typology of pronouns more broadly.

Tone, viewpoint aspect, and imperative mood

We examine the interaction between viewpoint aspect and imperative mood in an under-described and endangered Edoid language of West Africa. In Emai, tone functions both lexically and grammatically. Verbs in citation form, including bisyllabic items, are toneless. In declarative mood Emai distinguishes perfective from imperfective, with perfective assigning high tone to a verb and imperfective assigning low. Imperative mood takes perfective aspect, most clearly evident when an auxiliary or preverb precedes the verb or when the imperative is negated. In simpler imperatives, verb tone is low high. The low tone is conditioned by the juxtaposition of a subject phrase that shows a second person pronoun with high tone and a verb phrase whose initial syllable is high. Across phrasal constitutents, consecutive high tones, as they would have appeared in simpler imperatives, are prohibited. It is the verb phrase initial high syllable that lowers.

Complements and modifiers: Implications for typologies of pronouns

This paper argues for a distinction between two categorially distinct types of personal pronouns in natural language. It demonstrates that overt nominal content surfaces as (i) a complement or (ii) a modifier of a personal pronoun. The distinction in the way nominal content merges is reflected in two types of pronouns. Pronouns taking nominal complements are full-fledged determiners, while pronouns surfacing with nominal modifiers are pronouns proper, i.e., pronominal forms that do not exhibit the determiner syntax. Four novel diagnostics underlying the complement/modifier distinction are introduced: (i) binding, (ii) genericity requirement, (iii) availability of pro-drop, and (iv) size of the pronoun. The paper contributes to a longstanding debate on the representation of nominal content in pronouns and a close connection between pronominal forms and determiners.

Enhancing young EFL learners’ written skills: the role of repeated pre-task planning

Abstract The present study seeks to investigate the effect of repeated pre-task planning on young learners’ written production of three problematic aspects of English grammar (the present simple third-person singular -s; the possessives his/her; and the personal pronouns he/she), and the overall quality of their writings. Thirty-three dyads of Basque-Spanish learners of English as a Foreign Language (EFL) from the sixth year of the primary education level (aged 11–12) performed a series of picture-prompted narration tasks in three different planning conditions: guided-planning (GP), unguided-planning (UP) and no-planning (NP). Their written production was compared in pre-, post- and delayed post-tests. Results showed statistically significant gains for the GP group, supporting the claim that repeated practice involving pre-task explicit grammar instruction might benefit young EFL learners, even though not all the target forms under analysis improved.

In help-seekers' shoes: First-person pronouns entitled charitable fundraising campaigns and individual donating behavior in China

Both first-person and third-person pronouns are widely used in charitable fundraising campaigns, but which type of pronouns is more effective in soliciting donations is still to be explored. In this study, we conduct a field study and five experiment studies to examine the effect of personal pronouns (first-person vs. third-person) entitled charitable fundraising campaigns on viewers' donations and its underlying mechanisms. We find robust results to show that, compared to third-person pronouns, adopting first-person pronouns (both singular and plural) in the title of charitable fundraising campaigns significantly increases viewers' donating willingness and behavior. Viewers' perceived self-other overlap acts as an important mediating mechanism: using first-person pronouns in the title of charitable fundraising campaigns first increases viewers' sense of self-other overlap, which in turn promotes their donating behavior. In addition, viewers' thinking style seems to bend the relationships between the use of first-person pronouns and both perceived self-other overlap and donating behavior in such way that individuals with emotional-thinking style (vs. rational-thinking style) experience stronger self-other overlap and demonstrate higher level of donating willingness when a charitable campaign is named in first-person pronouns other than in third-person pronouns. These findings contribute to the literature on charity marketing, personal pronouns and metaphor representation, and have substantial practical implications.

Lexis and Grammar Specifics of the English Language in Africa

This research work deals with the lexical and grammatical features of the English language variant widely used in Africa. The importance of the use of British English is also taken into account, as well as its transformational processes due to the interaction and mutual influence of local dialects on its structure. Examples of neologisms and modified lexical units are given, based on the influence of local culture and the lack of an equivalent in the recipient language. The article pays attention to the grammatical aspects of language in the functioning of phrasal, modal and prepositional verbs, and also reveals the peculiarities of articles and pronouns use due to the influence of autochthonous languages. The aim of the research work is to identify the specifics of the linguistic and cultural adaptation of the English language in Africa and systematize the lexical and grammatical aspects of the English language as the territorial variant type. The choice of working methods is determined by the goals and objectives of the study. In the research work the method of metalinguistic analysis, methods of contextual and definitional analysis, methods of systematization and classification of linguistic material are used. As a result of the work the high productivity of the realities functioning in autochthonous languages in the lexical structure of the English variant in African countries and the lexical borrowings of terms from autochthonous languages are revealed. This trend is also emphasized in the borrowing of entire lexical phrases from the thesaurus of native languages. With regard to the grammatical part, a significant deviation from British English is emphasized. The research work results in such grammatical changes as: the use of auxiliary verbs together with semantic ones; the functioning of a simplified form of modern forms of the verb; the productive use of uncountable nouns in speech in the form of a countable nouns; significant deviations from British English in the process of using articles, personal and possessive pronouns.

Verbal engagement strategies in Iranian Teachers’ talk: Instagram teaching context

Abstract This study explores the verbal engagement strategies that EFL instructors adopt when teaching English over Instagram. These instructors create videos where they teach English and share them on Instagram. Twenty-five highly engaging English teaching videos on Instagram were used as the data of this study. To discover the engagement strategies that the instructors used, a combination of Hyland’s Engagement Model and Martin and White’s Appraisal Model, was applied to the teachers’ talk. The results indicated a slight difference in the frequency of engagement resources between the two models. Moreover, the results related to Hyland’s framework revealed that listener pronouns (second person pronouns) had considerably higher frequency than other engagement devices in the instructors’ speech. Nevertheless, personal aside and appeals to shared knowledge were used to a limited extent. Regarding the model of Martin and White, the result indicated that the overall engagement resources of heterogloss were about twice those of the monogloss. Moreover, between two broad categories of heterogloss, the resources of the contract category were significantly more common than those of the expand category in the teachers’ talk. The findings of this study have fruitful pedagogical implications. As the results suggest, teachers can bring the learners to discourse using listener pronouns, and in this way increase learner engagement in lessons. Moreover, the heterogloss resources, specifically the contract ones, can assist teachers in engaging learners.

Specyfika staropolszczyzny a anotacja gramatyczna. O lematyzacji tekstu staropolskiego

Specyfika staropolszczyzny a anotacja gramatyczna. O lematyzacji tekstu staropolskiego

Social Theory and Transgender: Beyond Polarization

This paper argues that social theory can cast light on some of the main themes in current debates about trans issues. It considers four such themes: social classification and social control; tensions between individual and group rights; access to public spaces; and the relationship between personal pronouns and social identity. In so doing, it seeks to reframe local disagreement and polemic through more general questions about our modes of living together, and concludes that these debates are at bottom about the future of civility.