Linguistic Theory Research Articles

Grammatical Metaphor in the C-E Translation of Jing Ye Si

In translation, translators are often confronted with the choice between congruent form and metaphorical form, which is closely correlated with grammatical metaphor theory in systemic functional linguistics. This paper attempts to apply grammatical metaphor theory to Jing Ye Si and its seven translations to assess poetry translation quality and provide guidance for translators from the perspective of systemic functional linguistics. It strives to elucidate the grammatical metaphor in the C-E translation of Jing Ye Si and the way to evaluate its seven translations via grammatical metaphor. In this context, six steps brought forward by Huang Guowen (2004) are taken in the functional discourse analysis of Jing Ye Si and its seven translations. After elaborating the characteristics of the seven translations, the study evaluates their overall translation quality. According to functional equivalence to the source text, the translations of Xu Yuanchong and Amy Lowell outperform other translations. In translation practice, translators are advised to choose between the congruent form and metaphorical form based on the context, original author, target readers, aesthetic value, translation purpose, and so on. Essentially, it is necessary to manipulate the transitivity system, mood system, modality system, and Theme system to realize the equivalence of the translations to the source text in terms of ideational, interpersonal, and textual metafunctions.

SC-Net: Multimodal metaphor detection using semantic conflicts

The phenomenon of metaphors is often regarded as a departure from semantic selection and common sense in semantic composition tasks, with their fundamental characteristics being semantic conflicts. Recognizing intricate and elusive metaphors has consistently posed a formidable challenge in the realm of natural language processing. In this paper, we introduce a novel multimodal metaphor detection model named SC-Net. This model benefits from linguistic metaphor identification theories and aims to exploit the inherent semantic conflicts in metaphors to detect whether multimodal corpora are metaphorical. The model projects each modality into two distinct subspaces: a modality-semantic feature space and a modality-latent metaphorical feature space. The features derived from these spaces provide a comprehensive perspective for capturing both intramodal semantic conflicts and intermodal semantic conflicts for prediction purposes. Our experiments conducted on the Chinese, English, and Bilingual Met-meme datasets and the MultiBully dataset demonstrate that our proposed SC-Net achieves state-of-the-art performance.

QUESTION PRODUCTION IN ITALIAN-SPEAKING PWAGR

This paper presents the results of an elicitation task run with Italian-speaking people with agrammatic aphasia (PWAgr). Linguistic theories of aphasia have analysed the production of PWAgr as stemming either from a deterioration of grammatical knowledge or a limitation of extra-linguistic capacities which affect language. Among the former, the Tree Pruning Hypothesis (Friedmann and Grodzinsky, 1997) relates the height of the projections involved in the production of a structure with the chances of it being produced: the stronger the impairment in the speaker, the less likely they are to produce a structure involving higher nodes. Alternatively, syntactic knowledge may be preserved but its use is compromised by Working Memory (WM) limitations (e.g., Miyake et al., 1994; Jakubowicz, 2005). The two approaches make different predictions with respect to question production in Italian: according to the TPH, the production rates of yes/no-questions and who-questions should be comparable in moderate and mild aphasia. Why-questions involve a higher node and should thus not be available. Under a WM-limitation approach, the production rates of why-questions and yes/no-questions should be comparable and higher than those of who-questions. To determine which, if any, of the two approaches makes the correct predictions, three adult Italian speakers diagnosed with Broca’s aphasia and one with anomia performed an elicitation task targeting these three types of structures. Overall, yes/no-questions were the most frequent structures to be produced. The lack of who-questions, as opposed to the production of yes/no-questions, can be accounted for only if derivational complexity is taken into account, but the scarcity of why-questions suggests that the height of the nodes involved may play a role as well.

Cognitive linguistics-inspired language instruction

Second language acquisition (SLA) or second/foreign language teaching has been influenced to various degrees by key linguistic theories, including structural linguistics (Bloomfield, 1933; Saussure, 1959), generative linguistics (Chomsky, 1957, 1965), systemic functional linguistics (Halliday, 1973), and, more recently, contemporary Cognitive Linguistics (CL; Goldberg, 1995; Lakoff, 1987, 1993; Langacker, 1987, 1991; Talmy, 1988, 2000), a theory composed of several related linguistic approaches often viewed as a response or complement to generative linguistics. While structural linguistics, generative linguistics, and systemic functional linguistics have each provided a theoretical impetus for one or more of the prominent language teaching methods or approaches over the past century (such as the Audiolingual method, the Natural method, and the Communicative Language Teaching method), CL, as a newcomer, has begun to exert a growing influence since the early 1990s. Given that the purpose of this research timeline article is to present a historical overview of the key thoughts and studies on CL-inspired approaches to instructed second language acquisition (ISLA),1 a brief discussion of CL's main differences from the other linguistic theories and its key theoretical tenets is in order.

Water as Metaphor of Human Beings in English and Vietnamese Poems

This study aims to investigate the conceptual metaphors of water, which are metaphorically used to describe human beings, emotions, behaviours and relationships in English and Vietnamese poems. Based on the theory of cognitive linguistics and conceptual metaphors of Kövecses (2002) and Lakoff and Johnson (1980), this study examined 200 English and Vietnamese samples from a collection of poems written in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Through the application of descriptive, quantitative, and qualitative approaches and contrastive analysis, the study reveals that there are 6 categories of water images which are metaphorically used to characterize human beings. The study also finds out the similarities and differences between conceptual metaphors of water symbolizing human beings in English and Vietnamese poems. This investigation is hoped to improve our understanding of how metaphorical phenomena are interpreted across languages and enhance the process of teaching and learning English.

Conventionality matters in Chinese metaphor but not simile comprehension: evidence from event-related potentials.

Metaphor and simile, two prevalent forms of figurative language widely employed in daily communication, serve as significant research subjects in linguistics. The Career of Metaphor Theory in cognitive linguistics posits that as conventionality increases, the cognitive mechanisms of metaphor comprehension shift from "comparison" to "categorization." In line with this notion, prior electrophysiological investigations have revealed that novel metaphors elicit a stronger N400 brain response compared to conventional metaphors. However, the observed N400 difference between conventional and novel metaphors may merely stem from the familiarity contrast between them, as conventional metaphors are typically more familiar than novel ones. To address this dichotomy, the present study not only compared the N400 responses between conventional and novel metaphors but also between conventional and novel similes. While conventional and novel similes differ in familiarity, similar to conventional and novel metaphors, both are processed via "comparison" mechanisms. The results revealed that novel metaphors elicited larger N400 amplitudes compared to conventional metaphors, aligning with previous findings. In contrast, no significant N400 differences were observed between conventional and novel similes, suggesting that familiarity disparity is unlikely to account for N400 distinctions. Our findings imply that conventional and novel metaphors undergo distinct cognitive processing mechanisms ("comparison" versus "categorization"), thereby providing further empirical validation for the Career of Metaphor Theory.

The dialogue between languages of painting and cinema in The Age of Innocence by Martin Scorsese

After a short survey of the key theories that define the intermediality of film and the relationship between cinema and painting, the paper focuses on the case study of The Age of Innocence, a film by Martin Scorsese that exemplifies the transformations cinematic imagery may undergo under the influence of painting. Methodologically grounded in the linguistic theory of correlation between objective and subjective language systems, which cooperate in producing each utterance, the research approaches painting as a multifaceted objective language that cinema employs to reference specific worldviews or models of the world. Comprehension of the analogies between painting and film sheds light on how and why cultural patterns from other art are recreated in new media, and how the subjective language of the work of cinematic art is formed in relation to the objective languages of other visual arts. The results of the analysis reveal the film as an intertext with various genres and styles of European painting embedded into its visual language system. Specifically, the paper reveals how the Netherlands’ Golden Age portraiture, landscapes, and still-lives, together with several forms of the Impressionism and Art Nouveau styles, compose the objective language of the film. This research contributes new empirical ground to the theoretical studies of the interconnectedness of cinema and painting, providing a wider perspective on the universal language of visual art.

How real is the quantitative turn? Investigating statistics as the new normal in linguistics

Abstract Statistical approaches in linguistics seem to have gained in importance in recent times, especially in the field of Corpus Linguistics. In particular, the last ten years have seen an upsurge of linguists being dedicated to statistical methods and the improvement of statistical knowledge. This has repeatedly been described as ‘the quantitative turn’ in linguistics. In the present paper, we assess how real this quantitative turn actually is and whether statistics can be considered the ‘new normal’ in (corpus) linguistics. To this end, we have analyzed the contributions to six high-impact journals (Corpora, Corpus Linguistics and Linguistic Theory, ICAME Journal, English World-Wide, Journal of English Linguistics, and Language Variation and Change) for a period of eleven years (January 2011 until December 2021). Our results suggest that, indeed, statistical methods seem to be on the rise in linguistic studies. However, their frequency strongly varies between the journals, and, in general, we have identified some room for improvement in the use of advanced statistical methods, in particular the discussion of true prediction.

EMOTIONS THROUGH THE PRISM OF GERMAN PAREMIES

The article explores the concept of human emotions as a dynamic, systemic, socio-psychological phenomenon with distinct linguistic-cultural specificity and national characteristics. The choice of this research topic is driven by a perceived spiritual crisis affecting humanity in general, and the German ethnic group in particular, as well as by an anthropocentric approach to contemporary linguistic issues. The German language is seen as peripheral in many research contexts. The hypothesis underpinning this study suggests that a spiritual crisis is linked to a lack of inner harmony, arising from cognitive dissonance. From a theoretical perspective, cognitive dissonance should encourage individuals to engage in cognitive processes, enhancing their understanding of the world and their place within it. This process includes critical examination of received information and validation of its truth. Discomfort caused by mental dissonance can be resolved by changing behaviors or beliefs, controlling emotions, revising values or conflicting ideas, or increasing emotogenic knowledge.The article emphasizes that the definition of emotion remains open-ended, with its interpretation often tied to specific philosophical teachings, biological, somatic, psychological, cognitive, eclectic, or linguistic theories. The primary objective of the study is to establish a paradigm of the most typical emotions experienced by the German people over many centuries, as evidenced by paremias (proverbial expressions). Emotions that are codified in texts more than three times are identified as typical. Despite significant contributions from philosophers, psychologists, ethnographers, historians, sociologists, linguists, and philologists to the study of emotions, many aspects remain unresolved, particularly with respect to emotions in texts and paremias. Through this research, the concepts of "emotion," "emotion in text," and "emotion in paremia" are clarified. The study also provides a brief overview of the German way of life during the 8th to 18th centuries, offering examples of explicit and implicit emotions, as well as their variants. Additionally, emotional patterns and their variations are examined, distinguishing positive, neutral, negative, and undefined emotions based on semantic features. Ultimately, the article confirms the idea that there is a relationship between emotions and the cultural and spiritual experiences of an ethnic group.

Investigating the Genuineness of Suicide Notes in Social Media

This study aims to find linguistic evidence that is able to act as legal evidence in determining the genuineness of a suicide note. The data sources were written and digital suicide notes from Indonesia. The data were collected from social media through documentation. The data collected were graphology and lingual units that indicate the linguistic features of a genuine suicide note. The units were seen from their structure, meaning, and context to determine the motivation. The data were analyzed through referential identity, orthography identity, and distributional methods from descriptive-qualitative and descriptive-quantitative approaches based on linguistic theories. The theories applied were intertextuality, meaning, linguistic features of suicide notes, the context of the situation, and generative transformation. The findings show that written and digital suicide notes, as well as posts on the victim’s social media, provide evidence that the note is genuine and written by the victim. The evidences are recursive graphology, interrelated propositions, and linguistic features of a genuine suicide note. The motivations for suicide are derived from the victim’s self-blaming, his acknowledgment of his inability to help himself from financial and mental issues, and a constant feeling of being a disappointment to people who had supported him.

An Analysis of Student’s Recount Text: An SFL Approach

This paper reports on the results of a study aiming to investigate the student’s ability to write recount text of a university student in Bandung. The study was conducted using the theory of Systemic Functional Linguistics (SFL), especially functional grammar, in terms of the Transitivity, Mood and Modality system. The study used a case study on text analysis. A text, which is a recount text written by a higher achiever university student, was analysed using the Transitivity, Mood and Modality system. In terms of the Transitivity system, the result indicates the writer’s adequate syntactic compression and rich lexico-grammatical patterns. Moreover, in terms of the Mood and Modality system, the text shows the writer’s ability to infuse, temper, negotiate, and constrain the experiential meanings in the Mood that is in focus. Hence, the writer is categorized as a mature and critical writer, and the text is appropriate to be used as a model text. Research on text analysis using SFL of different genres of text and how the teaching of writing should be conducted to help improve students’ writing ability is recommended.

People’s beliefs about pronouns reflect both the language they speak and their ideologies.

People’s beliefs about pronouns reflect both the language they speak and their ideologies.

A Study of Speech Acts Used in Baby Songs

Speech act theory is one the most important theories in linguistics in general and pragmatics in particular. The first part of the research is concerned with the theoretical background of speech acts while the second part is concerned with data analysis and conclusions then the references used in this research. The current study deals with the theory of speech acts that has been proposed by Austin and developed by Searle. The study focuses on the use of speech acts through baby songs. It is an Analysis of macro and auxiliary speech acts which is presented by van djik.In this study, six famous baby songs are utilized to be the data of analysis and finally Grice maxims are tackled in this study.

Analysis of Nonlinear Narrative via the Lens of the Coherence Theory of Language

The objective of this study is to examine the utilization of nonlinear narrative approaches in literature and investigate the potential optimization of comprehension of intricate plots through the application of linguistics-related knowledge. This study has determined, based on an examination of pertinent literature, that the use of non-linear narrative techniques can augment the appeal and intricacy of a literary piece, while also intensifying the level of reading challenge for its audience. This research use qualitative research methodologies to examine the utilization of non-linear narrative approaches, with a focus on comprehending these strategies through the analysis of textual data. The findings indicate that the principles of linguistic theory can be effectively employed in the analysis of literary texts as well as in the interpretation of films and television productions. This discovery has the potential to enhance the applicability of linguistics, thereby bridging a portion of the existing disparity between linguistic theory and real-world applications.

Associated motion, associated posture and imperfective aspect in Tacana (Amazonian Bolivia)

Abstract This paper is the first detailed description of the exceptionally rich subsystem of verbal inflections that express imperfective aspect in Tacana, an endangered and underdescribed language from the Takanan family. The unusually high degree of elaboration of this system, which includes nine members in paradigmatic opposition, is achieved by co-expressing imperfective aspect with spatial meanings taken from two distinct categories: associated motion (with five values: ‘going’, ‘coming’, ‘going back’, ‘coming back’, ‘wandering’) and what I will call “associated posture” (with three values: ‘standing’, ‘lying/bending’, ‘hanging’). The ninth member is a default imperfective marker that does not carry any spatial meaning. The paper challenges linguistic theories that consider grammatical(izable) concepts as belonging to a strictly limited range of notional domains from which motion and posture are excluded. Additionally, the paper provides strong support for a new comparative concept of “associated posture” in linguistics.

“Constructed Women”

Simone de Beauvoir (1908 - 1986), as the pioneer and founder of feminist literary criticism, her feminist thoughts and Literary theory have had a profound impact on the development of women's movement and feminist literary theory around the world. Beauvoir is “one of the most important women of the 20th century.” His book The Second Sex covers the cultural content of philosophy, history, literature, biology, ancient myths and customs, and discusses the actual women’s situation, status and rights in the historical evolution from Primitive society to modern society. In the book, linguistic theories and methods are applied to define and differentiate gender concepts, and a detailed study is conducted on the shaping and influence of daily life, religion, and taboo language on women’s psychology and consciousness. Exploring the relationship between gender and culture is an important dimension that reflects a conscious awareness of language and culture. Beauvoir’s language research has provided important theoretical inspiration for the development of feminism, especially postmodern feminist criticism, and has a transitional significance that connects the past and the future. This article takes The Second Sex as the research text and conducts a feminist analysis of Beauvoir’s linguistic theory from three aspects: The first part elaborates on feminism by analyzing Beauvoir’s application of linguistic methods and research on multiple linguistic issues, criticizing the traditional patriarchal cultural tradition. The second part compares Woolf’s feminist language views and introduces the different focuses of language research between the two. The third part elaborates on the impact of Beauvoir’s language research on feminist criticism and postmodern feminism.

Study on the English-Chinese Translation of Linguistic Terms From the Perspective of Skopos Theory

The development of linguistics in China is closely related to the terminology of the discipline and its translation. With the increasing number of linguistic terms, the translation of terms is bound to be inconsistent and even chaotic. Based on an overview of the characteristics of linguistic terms and their translation bottlenecks, the translation and clarity of linguistic terms are crucial in interpreting complex linguistic theories. Therefore, it is imperative to explore, identify and correct the translation of linguistic terms and put forward the feasible ways of translation. As far as the translation of linguistic terms is concerned, hermeneutic theory is operable in this application, and many problems in the translation of linguistic terms can be reasonably explained and caused by hermeneutic theory. Based on the translation practice of linguistic terms, this paper discusses the translation methods of linguistic terms from the perspective of Skopos theory, combining the theoretical research of Skopos theory with the author’s translation practice.

Functional Discourse Analysis of Queen Elizabeth II’s Speech in 2020

Based on Halliday’s Systemic Functional Linguistics, this thesis analyzes Elizabeth II’s 2020 Christmas speech and studies how the Queen uses language skills to obtain the support of the audience. Through the method of functional discourse analysis, this paper explores the performance of the three metafunctions of language in discourse. A comprehensive and in-depth analysis of Christmas speeches shows the operability and applicability of systemic functional linguistics theory in explaining political discourse, which is of practical significance. In addition, representative and contemporary political discourses are selected, and the analysis results are more practical.

Introducing/Testing New SFL-Inspired Communication/Content/Function-Focused Measures for Assessing L2 Narrative Task Performance

Abstract In response to calls for an assessment tool that provides a separate performance dimension from the linguistic quality-oriented measures of complexity, accuracy, and fluency (CAF) and guided by systemic functional linguistic (SFL) theories, this study introduces a set of fine-grained objective measures of communication/content/function (CCF)-related performance in second language (L2) narratives and empirically tests the validity of these measures using vigorous research procedures and statistical tests. The test results show that these CCF measures assessed their intended SFL functional dimensions, in contrast to the key CAF measures that evaluated mainly linguistic dimensions of narrative performance. More specifically, these CCF measures offered an objective evaluation of the communication/content quality of narrative task performance as evaluated by the subjective functional adequacy scales, while the key CAF measures provided an objective assessment of the linguistic quality of task performance as measured by the largely subjective International English Language Testing System (IELTS) scales. The study also discusses the implications of the results for making the assessment of L2 task performance more accurate and comprehensive.

DESCRIPTION OF THE CLITIC PRONOUN 'ME' IN PERSONAL LETTERS FROM TWO NORTHEASTERN REGIONS

This paper describes the syntactic-discursive behavior of the pronoun me in two epistolary materials from two different regions of Northeastern Brazil: Sertão of Pernambuco and Recôncavo in Bahia. Theoretically, this article is based on the Functionalism theories in linguistics, namely: Hopper and Thompson (1980), Neves (2012), Fuzer and Cabral (2014), and Halliday and Matthiessen (2014). It is also supported by the Valence Theory Grammar, which is approached according to: Neves (2000), Welker (2005), Perini (2007), and Rodrigues (2007). As part of its research methodology, the following steps were carried out: the selection of the contexts in which the phenomenon appears in the corpora, the collection of the socio-historical data regarding the missivists', the grammatical classification of the pronoun me, and the analysis of the verbal valence, accordingly with the assumptions of Functionalism. As a result of the analysis of the functionalities of the clitic me, it was observed that traditional grammars and descriptive grammars do not cover the particularities of the ethical dative pronoun, as they do not mention its capacity to be a discursive particle, a zero-switchable element in the sentence structure, not an actant, but in the communicative context it positions the writer and it can be associated with matters of morality and affection.