Contact Situations Research Articles

Presentation, Representation, and Museumification in Heritage Tourism: The Case of Hongkeng Hakka Earth Building Folk Cultural Village

UNESCO’s placement of the large, multi-story communal vernacular buildings known as tulou (土楼, rammed earth building) on its World Heritage List, and the touristic development that followed, has produced great social transformations among the Hakka people of Southeast China who reside in these impressive dwellings. My research explores the impact of UNESCO-inspired tourism on community life in Hongkeng village (Yongding Hakka Tulou Folk Culture Village). In this brief essay, I explore the local reshaping of space and social relationships to illustrate the ways that heritage tourism transforms everyday life and local culture. My special interest in the larger project from which this essay draws is the ways that local people negotiate such transformations. The negotiation process involves local people adapting to the new heritage phenomenon and navigating situations of frequent cultural contact and regular conflicts of interest. On the one hand, heritage and tourism contribute to the museumification of local life and culture. Local government and natives consciously or subconsciously represent their identity and tradition as well as produce localness through the decoration and reshaping of local living space. On the other hand, heritage tourism activities result in new forms of social interaction that challenge local genealogical social structure and family relationships. In such circumstances, new modes and patterns of community interaction and local cultural practices are generated under the transformative forces of heritage and tourism. My investigations into the spatial, cultural, and social spheres of local life in Hongkeng aim to help understand the transformation of an indigenous community while it is engaging in (and with) heritage practices such as listing, landmarking, representation, historical recreation, cultural commodification, and touristic management.

Copula variation in Asturian Spanish and the multidimensionality of stancetaking in interaction

In this study, I analyze the relationship between stance, style and sociolinguistic variation in a situation of language contact between Asturian and Spanish in the urban areas of Asturias (Spain). Using different types of data, and a triangulation of quantitative and qualitative methods, I explore the interactional functions of Asturian ‘ye’ (‘he/she/it is’), a salient marker of Asturian identity, and how the stances indexed by this form – low epistemic commitment, lack of seriousness and social solidarity – are connected to more enduring social identities. In the analysis, I provide a possible operationalization of stances that takes into consideration the multidimensionality of the stancetaking process. I also show how examining stance can provide a tool to move beyond monolithic representations of social meaning, and dichotomous distinctions between standard and non‐standard variants.

Montenegrin-Albanian Linguistic Border: In Search of “Balanced Language Contact”

The article aims to clarify the notion of “balanced language contact” and to model the situation of a language contact (in the present and the past) in one of the ethnically and linguistically mixed regions of the Montenegrin-Albanian linguistic border. The study focuses on the situation in the bilingual community of thevillageofVelja Gorana, located in the area of Mrkovići inSouthern Montenegro. The community of the village, as it seems at a first glance, provides a good example of a “balanced contact” situation. The language situation in Velja Gorana is described in the article as a set of micro-situations, or scenarios, developing on family and individual levels. Attention is paid not only to the communication in the family domain, but also to the external relations of the community members. Following on from this material, the authors attempt to develop a methodology for assessing the role of both languages in such communities in general, showing which factors influence individual linguistic behavior; how this behavior may change during an individual lifetime; how the different speakers’ strategies amalgamate in what can be considered as behavior of a multilingual speech community. Analyzing the information on the history of Velia Gorana, in particular, conducting a detailed examination of the origins, genealogies and marriage strategies of its families, allows the authors to reconstruct the mechanisms for the development of “linguistic exogamy” in the community of Velja Gorana and to make assumptions about the nature of the contact situation in this region in the past.

Current Trends and Issues in Albanian Language Use

Abstract Language is an instrument for communication and it has the obligation to serve people improving it. But in fact there are moments when language and its rules, decided by a group of people, goes against this purpose, creating so a disorientation between the users and misapprehension of the messages transmitted. In the Orthography of Albanian Language printed in 1973 (p.23) is written “The foreign names has to be written according to the tradition of their use in Albanian taking in consideration the pronunciation in their relative language.” Last 20 years in publications, periodic and visual medias in Albania we can note that the Albanian language is in crossroad between: a rule imposed in a situation of complete isolation and the actual situation of multiple contacts that makes the rule a barrier. Nowadays the same names are written in different forms losing so the correlation with the original and causing a enormous problem not only linguistic but cultural and interpersonal, too. For example referring to high school textbook of literature we will find the names of the American authors as pronounced, in the following forms: Teodor Ruthk, Robert Louell, Xhon Berrimen, Robert Krili, Allen Ginsbergu, Majkell Meklur, Xhek Spicer, Diane Uakoski etc. If an Albanian student would like to prepare a homework and he goes to search in internet information or to find bibliography about these authors, will be impossible to have results, because these names don’t exist in that form. According to the EU and UN norms, the names must be written in respect of the original form. Therefore the Albanian language should reflect social, political and cultural changes of the society, an open society needs an flexible and opened language because as Hudson said “Linguistics ignores the society for its harm”.

Интеллектуальная одаренность и социальное развитие: противоречивая связь

The article addressed the problem of the links between the intellectual giftedness (General Intelligence), on the one hand, and social development, on the other. Analysis of experimental data gives a very contradictory picture. While some studies indicate a certain integrity of mental and social development of a gifted child and his/her well-being in social terms, the other part of researchers numerates facts of significant difficulties for gifted children and adults in situations of social contacts. The article discusses the reasons for such conflicts, and the main one is the existence of two different variants (types) of age-related development of intellectually gifted children. If in one case we observe "over full-fledged" children with a very harmonious type of development (from the point of view of social skills) in another case we confront with problematic children, who display a distinct asynchrony of development, manifesting the dramatic lag of their emotional and social development from mental one

Simulation of the temperature field distribution in medium-voltage vacuum interrupter and experimental verification

The temperature field distribution in the medium-voltage vacuum interrupter decides the thermal stability of it. In this paper, the simulation model of a kind of 12kV/3150A/40kA medium-voltage vacuum interrupter is constructed, and conductive bridge model is used. This paper simulates current contraction and Joule heating between contacts, and solves relevant problems using the function of the thermal-electrical coupling in the finite element software ANSYS. Steady-state temperature rise of vacuum interrupter at rated current and transient temperature rise of vacuum interrupter at short-time withstand current are calculated. Influence of the contact situation on vacuum interrupter temperature rise is analyzed. Steady-state temperature rise experiments for the interrupter are carried out, and experiment results verify the accuracy of simulation results. The results are useful in the designing and optimizing of medium-voltage vacuum interrupter.

Analysis of Rope Vibration Contacted to a Winch with Small Protrusion on Rope Groove

There are various types of rope models to simulate vibration of rope as previous papers have been proposed. Although these models are able to simulate rope vibration excited by measured or known force, it is impossible to simulate the vibration caused by indeterminate force, which is difficult to measure, such as the force related to contact situation between rope and pulley. Additionally these models do not take into account contact between rope and pulley. In this paper, we propose a practical model which enables us to analyze the contact under winch operation. As an initial test of simulation accuracy, we measure rope vibration excited by pulley with small protrusion on rope groove, and simulate same condition to compare the results. Finally, this paper describes the mechanism of rope vibration from the protrusion.

Nos ancêtres les Arabes: ce que notre langue leur doit by Jean Pruvost

Reviewed by: Nos ancêtres les Arabes: ce que notre langue leur doit by Jean Pruvost Amanda Dalola Pruvost, Jean. Nos ancêtres les Arabes: ce que notre langue leur doit. Lattès, 2017. ISBN 978-2-7096-5941-3. Pp. 300. With the goal of revealing the reach of Arabic influence in the present-day French lexicon, this book brings to light the longstanding cultural, social, and historical contact situations occurring between French and Arabic. Beginning with a short historical survey, the author swiftly dispels the myth that modern-day French has been largely shaped by the oft-praised Gaulish ancestors (nos ancêtres les Gaulois), and instead recenters the discussion on the many Arabophone influences that have occurred over two thousand years of contact and yielded such steady contributions to the French language that many forms are no longer identifiable by French speakers as exotic (artichaut, bougie, café, douane). Broken into six chapters, the work is centered around a 200-page pièce de résistance—an annotated list of French lexemes of Arabic origin—organized into themed cultural subgroups (Je m'alimente; J'achète, je paie; Je m'habille de pied en cap!), with descriptions that offer information on each item's etymology, French pronunciation, and Arabic source forms. Supporting chapters supplement the list with personal and historical anecdotes detailing social and cultural contexts of bygone and present-day eras that have conditioned the recurring contact (e.g., mathematics, commerce, poetry). Then, as a demonstration of the sheer robustness of Arabic words in present-day French, the author brings to life an alphabetized list of [End Page 228] lexemes by ordering them into subgroups with illustrative subtitles (letters N–P: Du Nénuphar à la Pastèque en passant par l'Orange; letters S–T: Du Sucre et à quel Tarif?) and explaining their origins. The discussion culminates in a forward-looking chapter that conjectures about the future of the languages, suggesting they have more in common than frequently believed. Both are languages of high society and sizeable international presence, both cover vast territories and possess a powerful body of literature, and both would benefit, the author contends, from a respectful coexistence marked by bidirectional translation and equal educational recognition. Throughout the book, one message is clear: Arabic's cultural and linguistic influence on French has always been one of great prestige, from foundational translations of Arabic mathematics texts inspiring early theoreticians to later translations of Arabic poetry inspiring the likes of Voltaire—it is only recently, in the glow of politicized prescriptivism, that its influence has been reinterpreted as something else. As such, the value of this text for linguists and French educators is considerable. On the one hand, it is the ideal format for diachronists to begin their inquiry on Arabic-French contact, while on the other, its comprehensive chapters and word lists boast reference-level quality for incorporation into undergraduate and graduate courses. Teachers, Francophiles, and wordsmiths alike will appreciate this work for its vibrant contextualized examples and historically complete portrayals of French-Arabic contact across the ages. Nos ancêtres les Arabes arrives at just the right moment to lead us on a delightful stroll through the miscellany of the French lexicon and remind us that cultural and linguistic influence is and has always been enriching, multidirectional, and enduring, even in the face of opposition. Amanda Dalola University of South Carolina Copyright © 2018 American Association of Teachers of French

Contact-induced grammatical (non)changes? Observations of morphosyntactic structures in the Kashubian dialect in Canada

This article considers the context of language contact and discusses four typologically relevant morphosyntactic features (definite and indefinite articles, the merger of instrumental and comitative cases, and the non-pro-drop tendency) and their possible changes in the Kashubian dialect in Canada. A comparison of the data on the Kashubian dialect recorded in Prussia during the mid-19th century by Hilferding and in the present-day by the author in the Renfrew area (Ontario, Canada) revealed no significant difference, even though the Kashubian spoken in the area has undergone various innovations due to the influence of English. Both grammatical and sociolinguistic analyses of the history of the contact situation suggested that the conservativeness of grammatical changes in the dialect can be explained by the prolonged isolation of the speakers in their new homeland, and by the fact that the intensive language contact and collective bilingualism between Kashubian and English are relatively new phenomena.

첫대면 접촉장면에서의 자기개시후의 받는측의 발화 : 한국인일본어 학습자와 일본어 모어화자의 회화를 중심으로 : 韓国人日本語学習者と日本語母語話者の会話をもとに

본 연구는 한국인 일본어학습자(이하KJ)를 대상으로 첫 대면 접촉 장면에서 자기개시를 받는 측 발화를 회화를 통해 고찰하였다. 받는 측의 발화는 申（2006）를 참고로 정보 수용 (맞장구, 웃음, 반복) 정보 교환 (정보 요구, 정보 제공) 정보 공감 (사실, 감상, 의견)이 있다. 정보 수용에서 는 일본어모어화자(이하J)는 맞장구를 가장 많이 사용하였고, KJ는 맞장구 다음으로 웃음을 많이 사용하고 J의 두 배를 사용하고 있었다. 정보 교환은 J 는 상대의 개시에 대한 정보나 회화 내용으로부터 예상 할 수 있는 범위에서 정보를 요구하는 반면에 KJ는 상대의 개시 내용보다 깊게 내용을 요구하는 경향이 있었다. 정보 공감에서는 전 항목이 J 보다 KJ가 많게 나왔다. KJ는 응답적인 발화가 아닌 상대의 자기개시를 감상으로 바꿔 말하고 공감의 말로 응하는 특징이 있었다. 위의 결과로부터 KJ, J의 자기개시 후의 받는 측의 발화는 차이점이 있는 것으로 밝혀졌다.

Contact-Induced Change in an Oceanic Language: The Paluai – Tok Pisin Case

Many studies have focused on substrate influence on the creole languages of Melanesia – Tok Pisin, Solomons Pijin and Bislama. The same cannot be said with regard to influence in the opposite direction: contact-induced change occurring in local vernaculars due to pressure from the creole. This paper presents a case study of several instances of structural borrowing and semantic category change in Paluai, an Oceanic language spoken in Papua New Guinea. It is shown that a number of functional elements originating from Tok Pisin are now firmly embedded in Paluai grammar: two verbs, gat and inap, and a conjunction, taim. Moreover, semantic categories are undergoing change and possibly attrition due to many-to-one correspondences. This suggests that it is important to view language contact situations as dynamic and involving two-way processes of change.

The Acquisition of the Communicative Act of Greeting: Language Parallels between Hungarian and Bulgarian

Abstract The acquisition of linguo-cultural competence in foreign language learning has its share in the overall process of acquiring the language. In the inter-language contact situation, the speaker has to overcome not only the language but also the cultural barrier. The present paper examines the acquisition of greetings by Hungarian native speakers in the process of learning Bulgarian language, as a result of acquiring linguo-cultural competence. The question of the nation-specific aspect of the communicative act carries an important role in foreign language acquisition, undoubtedly due to the fact that it reveals language-specific features. Furthermore, the “strangeness” of the foreign language seems to be best demonstrated within the frames of a typological analysis of the two - native and foreign - languages.

Contact-induced variation in clausal verb complementation: the case of REGRET in World Englishes

It has been argued that in language contact situations both transfer processes from the substrate languages (Thomason, 2008) and cognitive effects derived from the language contact situation itself (Schneider, 2012, 2013) can constitute important catalysts for language variation and change. Regarding the verbal complementation system, Steger and Schneider (2012: 172), for example, notice a preference for finite patterns over non-finite structures in World Englishes (WEs), that is, a preference for more explicit forms (hyperclarity and isomorphism). On the contrary, Schneider’s study (2012) does not confirm such a preference for more explicit forms in WEs in the competition between finite and non-finite patterns. This article intends to shed some light on the differences between the distribution of finite and nonfinite complementation patterns in WEs by exploring the complementation profile of the verb REGRET in two metropolitan varieties, British and American English, and comparing them to three geographically distant varieties with different substrate languages, historical contexts, and degrees of language contact: on the one hand, two ESL varieties, Hong Kong English and Nigerian English, and on the other, one ESD variety, Jamaican English, where contact is more pronounced. The main aim of this paper is, therefore, to investigate whether potential differences in the verbal complementation systems between varieties of English are product of cognitive processes derived from the language contact situation, a matter of transfer-induced change, or a combination of both.

Present-day Spanish fashion lexicon dresses up in English

Lexical borrowings can be regarded as one of the clearest and most direct consequences of any language contact situation. However, not all the borrowings that enter a language are alike. Since their entrance in a given language is motivated by different reasons, two general kinds of borrowings must be distinguished: necessary borrowings which name ideas and concepts for which the recipient language does not have any equivalent term; and superfluous borrowings which, on the contrary, refer to realities for which the recipient language already has equivalent terms. This paper focuses on the latter type. Specifically, it presents a diachronic corpus-based analysis of 14 English fashion terms with a clear Spanish lexical counterpart —blazer/‘chaqueta’, celebrity/‘famoso’, clutch/‘bolso de mano’, cool/‘de moda’, fashion/‘moda’, fashionable/‘de moda’, fashionista/ ‘adicto a la moda’, jeans/‘vaqueros’, nude/‘color carne’, photocall/‘sesión de fotos’, shorts/‘pantalones cortos’, sporty/‘deportivo’, trench/‘trinchera, gabardina’, and trendy/‘moderno’— in four Spanish corpora: the Corpus del Español, and the CORDE, CREA and CORPES XXI corpora. My objectives are twofold: firstly, to demonstrate to what extent these unnecessary Anglicisms are increasingly becoming part of the everyday contemporary Peninsular Spanish fashion lexicon; and secondly, to account for the three reasons that underlie their alleged constant entrance in twenty-first century Peninsular Spanish: (i) globalization and the impact of English on Spanish; (ii) the highly visible presence of English in the field of advertising; (iii) and the selling power of English.

El proceso de mediación explícita en la escritura del bilingüe endógeno. Análisis de "La otra gente", autotraducción del gallego al castellano de Álvaro Cunqueiro

La autotraducción del escritor bilingüe endógeno acostumbra a poner de relieve de modo privilegiado los mecanismos que rigen en la construcción del discurso sobre el otro. Así, la presencia del heterolingüismo, que hace audible la mediación, puede considerarse una característica habitual en muchas de las autotraducciones intraestatales en las que la que la nota o la glosa aparecen incorporadas en el cuerpo mismo del texto lo que modifica el estatus de la ficción.Esta tolerancia hacia la alteridad lingüística acostumbra a presentar también fuertes límites. Dentro de un marco de relaciones de poder asimétricas, como lo son las relaciones entre las literaturas gallega, catalana y vasca con la de expresión castellana, solo se asumen como tolerables aquellos textos que ocultan el conflicto sociolingüístico propio de las situaciones de contacto.

Functions of Back-Channels Between Indonesian Learners of Japanese and Japanese Native Speakers in Contact Situations:Contrasting Back Channels Between and Within Utterances

Functions of Back-Channels Between Indonesian Learners of Japanese and Japanese Native Speakers in Contact Situations:Contrasting Back Channels Between and Within Utterances

Numerical investigation of a walking soft robot

AbstractInterest in soft robots is motivated by their enormous potential in applications with close contact to humans or unpredictable situations for which their soft structure and versatility is beneficial. New mathematical models and control strategies are required to optimize the geometry and performance of the soft components of these robots. The authors use a nonlinear rod model to describe a pneumatically actuated quadruped soft robot and to study the influences of different parameters on its performance. Although the model does not accommodate contact situations perfectly, it is suitable to study general interrelations. These resulting studies serve to enhance the development of soft robots. (© 2017 Wiley‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)

Classifying Language Contact Phenomena: English Verbs in Texas German

While the transfer of English nouns into Texas German has received substantial scholarly attention, there currently exist no detailed studies on the transfer of English verbs into Texas German in particular and German-American dialects in general. This paper therefore discusses English verbs that are code-switched and loan-translated into Texas German from both a synchronic and diachronic perspective, using data collected by the Texas German Dialect Project since 2001. The analysis serves two purposes. The first is to provide an overview of English verbs used by Texas German speakers: how these verbs are integrated into German structures, and whether they have become established in the Texas German lexicon. The second goal is to show how analyzing verbal transfers in contact situations underscores the dynamic, interactive nature of language contact and structure. This part of the analysis is motivated by Backus & Dorleijn’s (2009) discussion of loan translation, which emphasizes that existing classifications of language contact phenomena must be rethought, as many instances of transference are not clearly captured by existing categories. Thus, this study goes beyond a lexical analysis of English verbs in Texas German by discussing how lexical transfer interacts with morphology, semantics, and syntax.*

Linguistic situation of the mass media of Ukraine in the estimations of citizens (according to mass survey)

Background. The mass survey was conducted as a part of the project «Ethnolinguistic conflicts, linguistic politics and contact situations in post-Soviet Ukraine and Russia» with support of the Volkswagen Foundation.Purpose. The article analyses the results of mass survey on the topic linguistic situation in Ukraine. The research was aimed to understand to what extent the state language policy in the area of mass media and cultural sphere meets the expectations of the citizens of Ukraine.Methods. Individual face-to-face interviews with 2007 respondents were conducted between February 2nd and Fenruary 10th, 2017 in all regions of Ukraine, except for territories not controlled by the Ukrainian authorities. Results. The results of the interviews showed that the language is an important factor only for choosing a book or a newspaper. It does not make any difference when selecting a radio or television programs; the least attention is paid to the language of the movies. On the other hand, not always the actual choice of the language of a media product depends on the language preferences of the person – this choice is also influenced by the content, quality, authorship, political orientation, at last the banal presence/absence of the necessary product in the preference language.Discussion. The situation with the preferences of Ukrainians in the media and culture reflects the linguistic choices of the Ukrainians as a whole. This situation, first, emphasizes the practice of bilingual communication in the country, and second, it reveals the problem of uncertain linguistic self-identification of one third of Ukrainians. It also underlines regionally marked attitude towards the strategy of language policy: the Western part of the country prefers the Ukrainian language, South – the Russian language, and Center and North take intermediate positions. Population of the traditionally Russian-speaking East provided quite contradictory answers to the questions about language preferences, often limited to the reactions “indifferent to me” or “difficult to answer”.

Verbreiding en oorzaak van h-procope en h-prothese in het Middelnederlands

Abstract The diffusion and cause of procope and prothesis of h in Middle Dutch In this article we examine the geographical distribution of procope and prothesis of h in Dutch charters from the 13th and 14th centuries, and the frequency with which these phenomena occur, while trying to find patterns in the data. We then venture an explanation of why these phenomena originate in the Flemish dialects. Our hypothesis is that procope of h was induced by language contact between Dutch (Flemish) and French, due to the many bilinguals in Flanders. The contact situation triggered an already existing internal tendency by which h was lost or weakened before sonorants and glides to also affect prevocalic h.